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UNiyERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


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EDUCATIONAL  BROTH 


FREDERIC  ALLISON  TUPPER 


Head-Master  of  the  Brighton  High  School,  Boston 


'or  TH€ 

Of 

califo 
■^  —•^syracuse,   n.    y. 

C.    W.    BARDEEN,    PUBLISHER 

1904 


L(i.\6oT 


f^^!^^ 


mAL 


COPYKIGHT,     1904 
BY 

Frederic  Allison  Tupper 


All  Rights  Reserved 


tJ 


DEDICATION 

To  THE  Teachers,  Pupils,    and  other 

Lovers  of   Education  with  whom 

MY  WHOLE  Life  has  been  spent, 

THIS  Book  is   Dedicated. 


|QOS^9 


PREFACE 

It  is  the  author's  hope  that  this  book,  in  spite 
of  its  evident  lack  of  consecutiveness,  will  be 
read  by  all  those  who  have  at  heart  the  highest 
educational  interests  of  our  country.  Although 
very  few  Americans  deny  the  supreme  import- 
ance of  education,  an  astonishingly  large  num- 
ber are  dominated  by  educational  superstitions 
and  fetiches,  which  they  supinely  accept  as  law 
and  gospel.  The  present  grotesquely  absurd  ex- 
amination system,  the  prevalent  marking  sys- 
tem, the  exaltation  of  the  letter  at  the  expense 
of  the  spirit  in  so  many  of  the  most  common 
methods  of  teaching,  may  be  instanced  as  illus- 
trations of  some  of  the  evils  which  the  author 
wishes  to  combat. 

The  author  takes  pleasure  in  acknowledging 
his  indebtedness  to  The  New  England  Journal 
of  Education^  The  Boston  Transcript^  The  Bos- 
ton Globe,  The  New  York  School  Journal,  to 
the  Revised  Charter  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
and  to  Boston  School  Document  No.  9,  1903. 

(5) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Educational  Broth 9 

The  Marking  System  Nightmare     -        -  12 

''  Team- Work  "  in  the  Eecitation      -        -  16 

SpeUing 18 

Latin  as  the  Universal  Language        -        -  ^1 

Teachers'  Salaries    -        -        -        -        -  25 

Anent    Diplomas 29 

The  Self-Limitation  'of  the  Elective  Principle 

in  Secondary  Schools  -  -  -  -  33 
The  Eequirements  in  College  English  from  the 

Standpoint  of  the  Preparatory  Schools  37 

The  School  Magazine  Club      .        -        -  49 

How  to  Build  Up  a  Large  Latin  Vocabulary  53 

Debating  in  Secondary  Schools        -        -  66 

Courtesy  in  Public  High  Schools        -        -  82 

A  True  Philosophy  -----  88 

Eeply  to  President  Schurman    -        -        -  97 

A  New  Field  for  Private  Beneficence      -  106 

The  Advantages  of  an  Alumni  Association  114 

Some  Instances  of  Ancient  Patriotism   -  121 

School  Playgrounds 124 

(7) 


8  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

New  York  and  Its  Public  Schoor  Teachers' 

Eetirement  Fund  .  -  -  -  -  126 
A  Professor  of  Child  Study  -  -  -  133 
Teaching  Morality  in  High  Schools  -  -  143 
Manual  Training  -----  151 
A  Plea  for  a  Higher  Civilization^and  for  the 

Poetic  Side  of  Life  -  -  -  .  159 
High  School  Electives      -        -        -        -        170 


EDUCATIONAL  BROTH 

The  educational  pot  is  now  boiling.  The  faith- 
ful teacher  is  making  broth.  Along  comes  the 
superintendent.  He  tastes  the  broth.  "  It 
ought  to  be  thicker  and  slabber,"  remarks  he; 
^'  put  in  more  psychology  and  the  broth  will  be 
all  right." 

So  in  goes  more  psychology,  especially  the 
physiological  variety.  Ganglia  flavor  educa- 
tional broth  wonderfully. 

Next  comes  a  supervisor:  "  Your  broth  is  too 
thick,  friend;  there  are  too  many  ingredients. 
Take  out  almost  everything  but  manual  training 
and  the  broth  will  be  famous." 

Next  comes  a  committeeman:  '^  Worthy 
teacher,  your  broth  is  all  wrong.  Put  in  some 
of  the-old-district-school-that-produced-so-many- 
able-men. ' ' 

The  broth  continues  to  boil  and  bubble. 

A  travelled  parent  next  appears:  ^'Are  you 
certain  that  Froebel  and  Pestalozzi  would  have 
made  broth  just  this  way  ?  " 

(9) 


10  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

And  still  the  pot  boils  on. 

A  normal  enthusiast  puts  in  her  appearance. 

'^  You  are  failing  in  methods"  says  she. 
"  Now  really,  there  is  only  one  true  way  of 
making  broth  of  this  kind.  That  way  we  all 
learn  at  West  water.  Once  master  the  broth- 
nature  and  the  syllabus  of  methods  will  at  once 
materialize  to  be  cognized  immediately  by  the 
synthetic  unity  of  apperception.  Now  the  broth- 
nature —  " 

At  this  point  the  broth  begins  to  boil  over, 
and  the  normal  enthusiast  hastens  away  to  get 
help  in  subduing  broth  that  acts  so  abnormally. 
There  are  neither  rules  nor  methods  ready-made 
that  will  cover  all  abnormal  ebullitions. 

A  distinguished  university  president  next 
comes  upon  the  scene.  '^  My  worthy  secondary 
teacher, ' '  he  exclaims,  ' '  your  broth  comes  to  my 
table  in  a  decidedly  uncooked  condition.  It  is 
evidently  underdone.  Are  you  sure  that  you 
cook  it  to  the  best  advantage  ?  It  seems  to  me 
that,  if  you  would  cook  it  a  shorter  time,  it  would 
be  more  palatable  and  much  better  done.  You 
evidently  let  it  simmer  too  long  over  a  slow  fire. 
We  cannot  digest   it  at  New  Camven  without 


EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  11 

an  enormous  amount  of  pepsin  in  the  shape  of 
private  tutoring  to  work  off  entrance  conditions. 
Now  in  Germany,  France,  and  Switzerland, 
much  better  broth,  much  more  easily  assimi- 
lated, is  made  by  educational  cooks  in  much  less 
time.  I  beg  you  to  stop  this  everlasting  sim- 
mering." 

Perhaps  the  teacher  may  here  reply:  ''All 
things  considered,  we  are  making  preparatory 
broth  about  as  well  as  you  are  making  Univer- 
sity floa^ting  island  or  similar  dishes." 

But  the  broth  keeps  boiling,  and  the  teacher 
says  in  his  heart :  ' '  My  broth  is  too  thick,  too 
thin,  too  crude,  too  miscellaneous,  too  restricted, 
too  un-American,  not  foreign  enough ;  it  is  too 
methodical;  it  is  too  haphazard,  and  yet  it  is 
pretty  good  broth  after  all." 


THE  MARKING  SYSTEM  NIGHTMARE 

"Is  this  a  dream  ?    Then  waking  would  he  joy. 
I  pray  thee  wake  me,  lest  I  dream  again." 

I  once  taught  in  a  high  school  of  excellent  re- 
pute, where  for  five  years  in  obedience  to  the 
directions  of  my  superior,  and  with  the  help  of 
a  friend  in  misery,  I  managed  to  live  through 
the  following  nightmare,  or  more  properly  incu- 
bus, as  it  was  not  limited  to  ''the  shades  of 
night ".  The  average  number  of  pupils  in  attend- 
ance was  150.  All  of  these  pupils  had  to  be 
marked  each  day  in  each  recitation.  At  the  end 
of  the  month  the  average  of  these  recitation 
marks  was  computed.  Then  the  averages  thus 
computed  were  copied  and  recorded  in  a  large 
record  book.  Of  course,  it  was  necessary  to  get 
the  marks  of  the  other  teachers,  and  record  their 
averages  in  the  book.  Then  it  was  customary  to 
compute  the  record  of  each  pupil  in  deportment, 
and  copy  these  averages  in  the  book  of  doom. 
The  next  step  was  the  computation  of  the  average 

of  the  class  averages,  in  order  to  get  at  afcnonthly 

(12) 


THE   MARKING   SYSTEM    NIGHTMARE  13 

average^  which  was  copied  on  the  pupils'  cards. 
In  the  meantime,  for  fear  that  the  Saturday  hoh- 
day  might  prove  too  seductive  in  its  influences, 
at  the  end  of  each  month  an  examination  in 
some  subject  was  given.  All  the  papers  had  to 
be  carefully  examined,  corrected,  and  marked. 
Then  the  average  was  recorded  in  the  large  book. 

You  begin  to  see  that,  what  with  preparing 
examination  questions,  correcting  and  mark- 
ing the  papers,  and  recording  the  marks,  the 
Saturday  "  holidays  "could  hardly  be  considered 
occasions  of  extravagant  merrymaking.  But 
to  our  averages.  At  the  end  of  the  term,  when 
the  tired  teacher  had  computed  the  averages  for 
the  third  time,  it  was  the  custom  to  make  an 
average  of  the  monthly  averages.  Next,  doubt- 
less, as  a  gentle  tonic,  it  was  necessary  to  get  the 
average  of  the  examination  averages.  Then  it 
was  customary  to  compute  the  average  of  the 
examination  averages  and  the  monthly  aver- 
ages. You  will  all  be  gratified  to  learn  that  this 
last  average  was  called  a  "  term  average  ". 

But  this  was  not  all.  After  the  teacher  had 
made  out  the  monthly  averages  ten  times,  the 
examination  averages  twice,  and  the  term  aver- 


14  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

ages  twice,  he  had  to  average  the  ten  moDthly 
averages,  avey^age  the  final  examination  aver- 
ages^ and  then  average  the  average  of  the  ten 
months  and  the  final  examination  average,  in 
order  to  obtain  what  was  pleasantly  called  "  the 
promotion  average  ^\  For  the  graduating  class 
one  more  average  had  to  be  computed,  namely, 
"  the  graduation  average  ".  This  was  obtained 
by  averaging  the  yearly  averages  for  the  four 
years  of  the  course. 

Thank  heaven  that  nightmare  is  over  now! 
But  does  not  a  similar  incubus  brood  heavily 
over  some  of  our  best  schools  ?  Might  not  Mr. 
George  T.  Angeir  direct  a  share  of  his  wit,  wis- 
dom, and  influence,  against  a  system  so  fraught 
with  cruelty  to  teachers  and  to  pupils  ? 


'' TEAM-WORK"  IN  THE  RECITATION 

Now  that  governors  and  bishops  attend  the 
annual  foot-ball  games  between  Harvard  and 
Yale,  and  indulge  in  the  most  frantic  demonstra- 
tions of  their  delight  at  ^'touch-downs"  and 
goals;  now  that  "  everybody  who  is  anybody  " 
makes  an  athletic  Mecca  of  Cambridge  or  New 
Haven,  there  to  wave  a  banner  of  crimson  or  of 
blue,  and  to  shout  with  the  loudest  at  ''good 
gains", — may  not  the  educational  philosopher 
derive  useful  lessons  from  a  game  that  attracts 
twenty  thousand  or  more  persons  at  one  time  ? 

We  want  more  "  team-work  "  in  the  recita- 
tion. It  is  not  enough  to  have  brilliant  individ- 
ual scholars  who  can  ' '  break  through  the  cen- 
tre ",  or  "  get  round  the  ends  ",  or  "  sprint 
forty  yards  ",  while  the  rest  of  the  class,  instead 
of  showing  "  clever  interference  ",  pays  not  the 
slightest  attention  to  the  progress  of  the  lesson. 
What  we  want  is  a  "  Deland  flying  wedge  "  or  a 
"revolving  wedge"  that  will  keep  close  to  an 

(15) 

or 


16  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

idea,  when  once  it  has  been  ''  put  in  play  "  and 
never  let  it  go  until  it  is  safely  "  touch-down  ", 
just  over  the  "  line  ".  Then  let  the  "  goal  "  be 
kicked  in  such  a  way  that  every  member  of  the 
class — ^'eleven",  I  was  going  to  say — may 
profit  by  the  result. 

Of  what  avail  is  it  that  the  brilliant  "  sprin- 
ter "  has  hold  of  an  idea,  and  is  rushing  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  and  health  and 
strength  toward  the  enemy's  goal,  if  the  class 
cannot  keep  up?  The  ''sprinter",  so  far  as 
class  advantage  goes,  is  sure  to  be  unmercifully 
''tackled"  and  emphatically  "downed"  by  the 
opposing  forces  of  ignorance.  The  class,  while 
made  up  of  individuals,  must  be  at  the  same 
time  a  unit.  A  recites  not  for  himself  alone, 
nor  yet  for  the  teacher,  nor  yet  for  the  school 
committee,  nor  yet  for  the  other  visitors.  B 
and  C  and  D  and  all  the  rest  of  the  class  are  to 
be  considered. 

^There  must  be  no  "  off-side  play  "  in  the  way 
of  cheating  to  get  high  marks,  whispering  ans- 
wers to  hesitating  pupils,  or  "  cribbing  "  in  the 
text-books.  The  "  pony  ",  or  "  horse  ",  is  usu- 
ally like  the  Trojan  horse,  and  contains  within 


17 

itself  all  the  elements  of  its  user's  destruction. 
What  brings  the  victory  ?  Practice,  patience, 
perseverance,  obedience,  "  team-play  ",  unity 
in  variety,  attention,  judgment,  individual  bril- 
liancy supported  by  average  capacity,  a  captain 
who  commands  the  love  and  confidence  of  the 
class,  and  who  knows  just  how  to  "  handle  the 
team".  With  such  factors  when  an  idea  is 
"  put  in  play  ",  you  will  hear  of  no  '^  muffing 
behind  the  lines  ",  but  you  will  see  every  pupil 
watch  his  chance  and  make  a  "  fair  catch  ". 


SPELLING 

A  knowledge  of  the  art  of  spelling  is  to  be 
gained  by  long  and  laborious  efforts.  The  causes 
of  failure  in  this  subject  ditfer,  no  doubt,  in 
different  cases,  but  there  are  certain  well-estab- 
lished, general  causes,  some  of  which  may  be 
enumerated  as  follows : 

1.  Wrong  methods  of  teaching.  Absurd  as 
some  of  the  old-fashioned  methods  were,  they 
still  had  the  scientific  merit  of  appealing  to  the 
memory  through  the  ear,  as  well  as  through  the 
eye.  Oral  spelling  ought  not  to  be  abandoned 
but  ought  to  be  practised  in  connection  with 
written  work.  The  spelling  match  is  not  to  be 
despised  as  an  educational  method. 

The  spelling  of  words,  like  the  words  them- 
selves, should  be  learned  as  we  need  it.  It  seems 
very  strange  to  store  up  long  lists  of  words 
mainly  for  some  possible  future  reference,  but  to 
be  unable  to  spell  the  commonest  words  of  every 
day  use.  All  facts  of  language  are  learned  one 
by  one.     Then  why  pretend  to  learn  them  by 

the  score  ? 

(18) 


SPELLING  19 

Words  entirely  appropriate  to  pupils  of  one 
stage  of  advancement  may  be  entirely  inappro- 
priate to  those  of  another.  The  spelling  of  the 
vocabulary  of  each  subject  in  the  school  course 
should  be  insisted  upon  more  rigidly.  The  pre- 
valent idea  that  the  spelling  should  be  considered 
as  something  only  remotely  connected  with  a 
science  or  an  art  cannot  be  too  strongly  con- 
demned. The  spelling  of  the  terms  of  physics, 
for  example,  is  an  important  part  of  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  he  who  attempts 
to  pass  as  an  expert  in  that  subject,  but  who 
constantly  indulges  in  what  (for  want  of  a  bet- 
ter term)  may  be  called  Josh  Billingsgate,  suc- 
ceeds only  in  making  himself  ridiculous. 

In  this  age  of  elective  studies  too  little  atten- 
tion is  paid  to  some  of  the  consequences  of  elec- 
tion. To  be  an  accomplished  speller  of  English 
one  must  know  much  of  languages  other  than 
his  own.  He  who  declines  to  study  Greek, 
Latin,  French,  and  German  declines  to  accept 
the  aid  offered  by  these  languages  in  the  study 
of  his  own.  He  who  shuns  mathematics  may 
expect  to  be  ignorant  of  mathematical  terms. 
He  who  eschews  science  may  blunder,  naturally 


20  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

enough,  about  scientific  terms.  The  pupil  who 
studies  his  Greek  in  a  rational  way  will  not  be 
likely  to  misspell  demagogue.  A  student  at 
Harvard  once  spelt  this  word  "  demigogue  ". 
^'  What  is  a  whole  gogue  ?  "  was  the  instructive 
comment  made  by  the  professor  in  charge  of  the 
course.  The  student  might  have  answered  this 
query  as  a  clever  Boston  teacher  did  recently : 
"  Why,  all  agog,  of  course!  " 

The  pupil  who  has  studied  French  will  not  go 
wrong  on  the  spelling  of  messieurs,  if  his  atten- 
tion has  been  called  to  the  composition  of  the 
word,  namely,  mes,  and  sieurs. 

Transliteration  plays  no  unimportant  part  in 
this  matter  of  spelling.  Such  words  as  laby- 
rinth, Egypt,  catarrh,  and  many  others  will 
have  no  terrors  for  the  student  who  understands 
transliteration. 

In  closing,  permit  me  to  say  of  the  late 
lamented  Noah  Webster  that,  in  my  humble 
opinion,  he  did  an  irreparable  injury  to  the  spell- 
ing of  the  English  language  when  he  attempted 
to  spell  words  not  according  to  good  usage,  but 
according  to  his  own  private  views  of  propriety. 
And  may  I  also  say  that  I  have  but  little  sym- 
pathy with  modern  movements  for  the  mutila- 
tion of  English  words  beyond  recognition. 


LATIN  AS  THE  UNIVERSAL  LANGUAGE 

Instead  of  adding,  year  by  year,  to  the  list 
of  "  universal  language "  failures,  why  not 
make  use  of  a  language  that  will  commend  it- 
self to  so  many  persons  in  so  many  lands  ?  Let 
us  state  the  question  in  the  form  of  a  debate : 
Resolved,  That  Latin  ought  to  be  adopted  as 
the  universal  language. 

1.  The  preparatory  schools,  the  colleges,  the 
universities  of  the  civilized  world,  have  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  given  great  attention  to  the  study 
of  Latin.  The  adoption  of  this  language  as  the 
universal  language  would  give  new  zest  to  a 
study  already  extremely  valuable  and  interest- 
ing. Thus  new  vitality  and  interest  would  be 
infused  in  this  time-honored  department  of 
learning. 

2.  Latin  has  already  been  tried  as  the  lan- 
guage of  the  learned,  and  has  been  found  an 
admirable  clearing-house  for  the  mental  coinage 
of  those  who   are  brothers  in  learning  if  aliens 

(21) 


22  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

in  government.  Newton's  Principia  and  num- 
erous other  works  appeared  originally  in  Latin. 
The  classical  notes  of  many  German  scholars  are 
still  written  in  that  language. 

3.  That  Latin,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  French, 
and  Romaic,  are  substantially  Latin  languages 
is  a  well-known  fact.  That  Latin,  as  a  living 
language,  is  studied  among  the  Hungarians,  is 
another  well-known  fact, 

4.  English  and  German  are  largely  indebted 
to  the  Latin  language,  not  only  for  numerous 
words  embodied  in  these  languages,  but  also  for 
many  phrases  and  expressions  taken  directly 
from  the  Latin  and  by  long  use  assimilated. 

5.  The  language  of  science,  particularly  of 
classification,  is  Latin,  with  such  an  admixture 
of  Greek  as  can  easily  be  Latinized.  You  have 
only  to  consider  the  vocabulary  of  botany, 
zoology,  geology,  physiology,  and  the  hundred 
other  "  ologies,"  to  see  the  truth  of  this  state- 
ment. Law,  medicine,  and  theology,  including 
services  in  Latin,  together  with  libraries  of 
works  in  Latin,  all  reinforce  this  plea. 

6.  The  custom  of  printing  diplomas  in  Latin 
has  much  to  be  said  in  its  favor.     Notwithstand- 


LATIN  AS  THE  UNIVERSAL  LANGUAGE  23 

ing  the  frantic  efforts  of  the  anti-classical  party, 
the  study  of  Latin  continues  to  attract  large 
numbers  of  the  ablest  students  in  all  nations. 
Such  students  are  glad  to  have  a  certificate  in  a 
language  intelligible  to  the  learned  world. 

7.  An  international  conference  might  well  de- 
termine the  proper  pronunciation  of  Latin.  At 
present  English-speaking  scholars  are  in  the  fol- 
lowing absurd  quandary:  If  we  pronounce  Latin 
by  the  Roman  method,  shall  we  also  pronounce 
proper  names  and  well-known  words  and  phrases 
by  the  same  method  ?  Must  Caesar  be  one  word 
in  Latin  and  another  word  in  English,  until  most 
pupils  in  a  desperate  attempt  to  master  two 
totally  different  pronunciations  are  driven  to  a 
strange  conglomeration  that  is  neither  Roman 
nor  EngUsh  ? 

To  understand  the  baneful  effects  of  a  double 
standard  of  pronunciation  you  have  only  to 
study  the  usual  pronunciation  of  medical  terms. 
Probably  such  words  as  bronchitis,  pericarditis, 
and  the  like,  are  almost  invariably  mispro- 
nounced. 

The  international  conference  meeting  at  stated 
times  might  pass  on  the  admission  of  new  terms 


24  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

to  the  universal  Latin  language.  For  example, 
telephone  might  easily  become  telephonium,  and 
other  Greek  compounds  might  be  easily  Latin- 
ized. 

How  the  preceding  propositions  may  be  re- 
ceived by  the  learned  world  I  know  not,  but  for 
myself  I  am  most  heartily  in  favor  of  the  move- 
ment. A  broad,  international  spirit  will  easily 
give  up  minor  points  of  pronunciation  and  usage 
for  the  sake  of  a  symmetrical,  world-uniting 
whole.  I  will  venture  to  say  that  the  adoption 
of  my  proposition  will  result  in  great  gains  to 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  to  learning,  to  diplo- 
macy, and  so  to  the  welfare  of  the  human  race. 


TEACHERS'  SALARIES 

One  of  the  most  ludicrous  results  of  solemnly 
accepted  methods  of  fixing  salaries  is  shown  in 
the  following  incident.  A  master  in  a  well- 
known  city,  feeling  that  a  European  trip  for 
study  and  recreation  would  greatly  benefit  him 
and  his  pupils,  obtained  leave  of  absence  from 
the  school  committee  and  went  abroad.  The 
time  was  spent  profitably.  When,  however,  the 
master  returned  refreshed  and  invigorated  physi- 
cally, mentally,  and  morally;  when,  filled  with 
enthusiasm,  and  eager  to  inspire  and  benefit  his 
pupils,  he  came  back  to  his  work,  he  found  a 
great  surprise  awaiting  him.  As  certain  men 
have  lost  their  shadows,  and  as  others  have  lost 
their  refiections,  and  yet  have  not  known  why, 
so  the  master  found  that  he  had  lost  his  continuity 
of  service,  and  must  resume  his  work  at  a  much 
lower  salary  than  that  which  he  had  received 
when  considerably  less  efficient!  ^' Lost  his 
continuity  of  service, ' '  had  he  ?  And  what,  in 
the  name  of  common  sense,  if  he  had  ?    Where 

(25) 


26  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

had  he  landed  ?  Was  he  more  efficient  or  less 
efficient?  ' '  Woodenness  "  in  education  is  al- 
ways a  perfect  reductio  ad  absurdum.  There 
is  no  place  for  the  foot-rule  in  dealing  with  the 
most  important  of  public  interests. 

And  here  I  wish  to  ask  why  the  American 
people  are  willing  to  allow  the  teacher's  profes- 
sion to  be  less  remunerative  and  less  esteemed 
than  either  law  or  medicine  or  theology  ?  Do 
you  say  that  the  great  law  of  supply  and  demand 
will  regulate  the  teacher's  salary  ?  If  you  were 
ill,  would  you  employ  a  cheap  doctor  ?  If  you 
became  involved  in  legal  difficulties,  would  you 
retain  a  cheap  lawyer  ?  If  you  wished  for  spirit- 
ual aid  and  comfort,  would  you  search  diligently 
for  the  cheapest  clergyman  ?  And  yet  commu- 
nities are  generally  willing  and  even  eager  to 
commit  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  inter- 
ests of  the  children  to  the  care  of  teachers 
whose  salaries  are  insufficient  to  satisfy  the 
most  moderate  needs. 

All  honor  to  that  noble  band  of  efficient  teach- 
ers who  are  yearly  giving  their  hves  to  their 
country ;  who  are  in  the  truest  and  best  sense 
of  the  words  public  benefactors ;  whose  watch- 


or  ^vW 

TEACHERS   SALARIE^«£»!i2&''^7 

word  is  not  "  salary  ",  but  "  efficiency  ".  But 
how  many  teachers  do  you  suppose  are  f aihng  in 
this  proud  state  of  Massachusetts  ?  And  why 
are  they  permitted  to  fail  ?  Because  they  are 
cheap !  You  can  hire  them  for  less  money  than 
the  amount  necessary  for  obtaining  good  teach- 
ers. There  are  millions  for  palatial  buildings 
and  thousands  for  decoration,  but  for  the  teach- 
ers not  even  the  compensation  of  third-rate  law- 
yers, doctors,  clergymen,  or  business  men  ! 

The  public  schools  of  Massachusetts  are  not 
places  to  be  used  as  training-schools  for  ineffi- 
cient teachers,  or  snug  harbors  for  superannu- 
ated intellectual  navigators. 

There  ought  to  be  an  immediate  and  a  radical 
change  in  this  matter  of  salaries.  Years  of  ser- 
vice have  their  place,  but  years  of  efficiency  are 
the  main  issue.  Sex  has  absolutely  nothing  to 
do  with  the  question.  The  profession  must  be 
made  so  honorable  and  remunerative,  that  it  will 
attract  and  hold  the  best  men  and  the  best  wo- 
men of  the  land.  When  the  young  graduate 
on  his  way  to  the  practice  of  law  or  medicine 
says  to  the  community:  "  Let  nte  experiment 
on  your   children.     I    will   do   it   at   very  low 


28  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

figures, ' '  the  community  ought  to  reply :  ' '  Hands 
off!  You  shall  not  assume  the  duties  of  the 
most  difficult  and  important  of  professions, 
even  if  your  bungling  services  should  be  offered 
free  of  charge.  Economy  in  such  matters  is 
akin  to  starvation  to  save  provision  bills.  Go 
about  your  business — that  is,  law  or  medicine !  ' ' 

Eaise  the  standard,  raise  the  salaries,  raise  the 
efficiency.  Exclude  bunglers.  The  employment 
of  poor  teachers  has  never  been  the  means  of 
saving  a  cent.  It  is  pure  loss,  or  worse  than 
loss.  The  gain  derived  from  hiring  the  best 
teachers  is  absolutely  incalculable.  No.  commu- 
nity can  afford  to  let  such  teachers  go. 

I  believe  that  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  all  pro- 
fessional and  efficient  teachers  to  agitate  this 
great  question  until  the  right  shall  prevail.  The 
greatness  and  the  glory  of  our  country  depend 
as  much  on  the  proper  recognition  of  teachers' 
services  as  upon  any  one  thing.  I  call  for  united 
action  on  this  subject. 


ANENT  DIPLOMAS 

What  do  they  mean — these  more  or  less  beau- 
tifully engraved  diplomas  ?  Here  is  a  Latin  doc- 
ument before  me.     It  reads : 

Schola  Latina  Roxburiensis 
In  Republica  Massachusettensi 
Omnibus  Ad  Quos  Hae  Literae 
Pervenerint  Salutem 
Notum  Sit  Quod — 
Studiorum  in  hac  Schola  curriculum  bene  ac 
fldeliter  confecit,  eique  in  rei  testimonium  Cura- 
tores  hoc  diploma  tribui  curaverunt. 

Datum,  Bostoniae,  Quinto  Nonas  Julias,  A.  D. 
MDCCCLXXV  . 

Praeceptor.  Curatorum  Praeses. 

You  may  fill  out  the  blanks  with  such  names 
as  the  circumstances  warrant.  All  very  fine, 
isn't  it?  ''Bene  ac  fideliter  confecit" — yes, 
but  all  the  graduates  obtained  the  same  com- 
mendation. The  beneficent  rain  of  compliment 
fell  on  the  just  and  the  unjust  with  an  impar- 
tiality as  striking  as  that  of  the  sky. 

(29) 


30  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

Have  you  ever  noticed  in  somewhat  antiquated 
diplomas  the  rhetorical  flourish  "  with  the  high- 
est honors  of  the  institution  "  ?  And  have  you 
ever  stopped  to  consider  the  fact  that  the  diplo- 
ma itself  was  "  the  highest  honors  of  the  institu- 
tion ",  and  that  all  the  graduates  revelled  in 
those  ^'highest  honors"?  The  same  kind  of 
generosity  characterizes  almost  all  of  the  diplo- 
mas granted  by  secondary  schools,  until  one  is 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  a  sheepskin,  like 
charity,  ''  covers  a  multitude  of  sins  ".  General 
Butler's  somewhat  startling  assertion  to  the 
effect  that  Harvard  would  do  well  to  confer  a 
degree  on  him,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  about 
the  only  Massachusetts  governor  who  could  trans- 
late the  diploma,  was,  of  course,  one  of  those 
playful  exaggerations  for  which  the  general  was 
noted.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  however,  that 
many  holders  of  Latin  diplomas  cannot  translate 
them.  An  unusually  "  seedy  "  man  once  ap- 
plied to  me  for  help  in  translating  his  Latin 
medical  diploma.  One  can  hardly  help  shudder- 
ing at  the  results  of  such  a  "  physician's  "  prac- 
tice, had  he  succeeded  in  finding  out  what  his 
diploma  meant.     Such  "    practice  "    inevitably 


ANENT   DIPLOMAS  31 

suggests  the  ''  target  practice  "  at  Manila  and 
Santiago. 

Some  universities  and  colleges,  like  Harvard, 
for  example,  confer  honors  with  distinctions  and 
differences.  For  instance,  there  are  the  plain 
degree,  the  cum  laude,  the  magna  cum  laude, 
and  the  summa  cum  laude,  degrees.  Harvard, 
like  the  partial  father,  says,  in  effect,  "  I  love  all 
my  sons  alike — especially  certain  ones  of  them." 

There  would  seem  to  be  a  consensus  of  opin- 
ion that  non-professional  diplomas,  like  marriage 
certificates,  are  not  properly  exposed  to  public 
view.  The  status  of  professional  diplomas  ap- 
pears to  be  somewhat  different,  probably  because 
the  public  demands  some  tangible  evidence  of 
competency  aside  from  the  advice  actually  re- 
ceived. 

The  foot-rule  must  not  be  applied  to  diplomas, 
even  if  the  '^magnificent  distances"  of  the 
present  documents  are  too  wildly  imaginative. 
Were  the  authorities  to  state  in  black  and  white 
on  an  unfortunate  pupil's  diploma  that  he  was 
"  very  poor  "  in  a  certain  subject,  what  would 
such  a  certificate  amount  to  as  a  source  of  joy 
to  the  owner  ?    The  "  little  rift  within  the  lute  " 


32  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

would  spoil  the  whole  scholastic  symphony. 
What,  then,  is  a  solution  of  the  existing  difficul- 
ties ?  Extend  the  elective  system,  state  in  the 
diploma  precisely  what  subjects  have  been  stud- 
ied, and  how  much  time  has  been  devoted  to 
each  subject,  and,  then,  if  it  be  wise  (and  whether 
it  is  or  not,  I  do  not  know),  note  the  various  de- 
grees of  excellence  by  some  such  expressions 
as  '^  with  the  highest  honor",  ''with  high 
honor",  and  ''with  honor".  The  diploma 
without  any  qualification  would  merely  indicate 
that  the  pupil  deserved  such  evidence  of  his 
efforts,  but  that  he  did  not  deserve  any  particu- 
lar commendation. 

If  an  institution  can  be  held  to  account  for  the 
attainments  or  lack  of  attainments  of  its  gradu- 
ates, surely  it  would  be  fairer  to  the  schools  to 
permit  the  diploma  to  mention  the  subjects 
studied  by  the  recipient.  Diplomas  based  on 
actual  facts  rather  than  on  "  glittering  generali- 
ties "  would  command  and  deserve  much  greater 
respect.  If  "  accuracy  is  the  soul  of  scholar- 
ship ",  truth  is  the  soul  of  accuracy.  Let  us, 
then,  have  the  truth,  tempered  only  with  regard 
for  the  feelings  of  pupils  and  parents. 


THE  SELF-LIMITATION  OF  THE  ELEC- 
TIVE PRINCIPLE   IN  SECOND- 
ARY  SCHOOLS 

Considerable  unintelligent  discussion  of  elec- 
tives  in  secondary  schools  has  arisen  from  a  par- 
tial or  complete  misapprehension  of  the  real 
scope  of  the  elective  principle.  Even  if  the  en- 
tire list  of  studies  in  secondary  schools  were  made 
elective,  there  would  still  be  limiting  elements  of 
great  importance.  In  the  first  place,  almost  any 
rational  scheme  of  study  involves  an  orderly 
procedure  from  the  elementary  through  the 
more  complex  towards  the  most  difiScult.  For 
example,  a  pupil  could  not  ordinarily  take  the 
second  year  Latin  until  he  had  mastered  the  first 
year's  work  in  the  same  subject.  A  similar 
statement  may  be  made  about  Greek,  French, 
German,  mathematics,  and  other  subjects. 
Furthermore,  a  study  like  that  of  physical  geog- 
raphy is  wisely  preceded  by  astronomy,  geology, 
botany,  etc.  Astronomy  and  physics  require  a 
good    knowledge   of    elementary  mathematics. 

(33) 


34  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  ^" 

Advanced  bookkeeping  presupposes  a  knowledge 
of  elementary  bookkeeping.  A  student  of  draw- 
ing who  might  attempt  the  most  difficult  parts 
of  the  subject  without  taking  the  preliminary- 
steps,  would  get  but  little  profit  from  his  work. 
In  every  good  elective  system,  then,  the  limita- 
tion of  natural  order  must  always  play  an  im- 
portant part. 

A  second  limitation  is  to  be  found  in  the  num- 
ber of  teachers  that  the  average  municipality  or 
the  average  private  institution  can  afford  to  sup- 
ply. Within  reasonable  limits  the  question  of 
the  merits  of  large,  moderate-sized,  and  small 
classes  is  a  debatable  one,  and  there  is  room  for 
enthusiasm  over  any  one  of  the  three  kinds  of 
classes.  It  is  generally  acknowledged,  however, 
that  our  present  danger  lies  in  the  direction  of 
too  large  rather  than  in  that  of  too  small  classes. 
But,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  safe  to  assert  that 
there  is  a  limit  beyond  which  a  class  cannot  be 
reduced  with  profit  to  the  public.  Meritorious 
as  individual  instruction  is,  and  beneficial  as  its 
results  are  in  many  cases,  no  rational  being 
would  ask  a  municipality  to  furnish  private  tu- 
tors to   every  child.     It  is,  then,  perfectly  fair 


THE   ELECTIVE    PRINCIPLE  36 

that  individual  choice  of  studies  must  always 
have  as  a  second  limitation  the  number  of  teach- 
ers that  can  be  reasonably  afforded. 

A  third,  and  extremely  important,  limitation 
is  found  in  the  secondary  pupil's  aims.  If  he 
wishes  to  go  to  college,  the  number  of  his  possi- 
ble courses  is  at  once  restricted  to  such  as  will 
fit  him  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  college 
of  his  choice.  There  is,  it  is  true,  a  growing 
tendency  towards  elasticity  in  these  require- 
ments ;  and  yet  even  Harvard,  the  great  centre 
of  the  elective  principle,  though  allowing  some 
freedom  of  choice,  still  makes  compulsory  a 
large  amount  of  the  work  required  for  admission. 
The  pupil  preparing  for  Yale,  or  for  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  or  for  the  Bos- 
ton Normal  School,  or  for  the  state  Normal 
School,  or  for  the  Normal  Art  School,  must  con- 
sider most  carefully  the  requirements  of  his 
chosen  institution,  and  must  direct  his  studies 
with  a  view  to  meeting  those  requirements. 

Still  further,  absolute  freedom  of  choice  is 
limited  by  the  advice  and  the  authority  of  par- 
ents and  teachers.  In  almost  all  of  the  institu- 
tions of  secondary  grade  in  which  the  elective 


36  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

plan  has  been  adopted,  the  choice  of  the  pupil  is 
made  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Principal  of 
the  school. 

An  additional  limitation  is  to  be  found  in  the 
prevalent  ideas  about  the  necessity  of  pursuing 
certain  studies.  Many  intelligent  persons  have 
strong  convictions  about  the  value  of  particular 
branches  and  the  expediency  of  gaining  at  least 
an  elementary  knowledge  of  them.  Such  con- 
victions have  been  influential  in  creating  a  de- 
mand for  the  study  of  mathematics  and  of  Eng- 
lish, to  mention  only  two  of  the  subjects  under 
consideration. 

In  consequence  of  such  prevalent  opinions 
pupils  wishing  to  take '' commercial  "  studies 
invariably  find  bookkeeping,  commercial  arith- 
metic, and,  of  late,  stenography  and  typewrit- 
ing, simply  inevitable. 

Further  consideration  might  show  additional 
restrictions,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  demon- 
strate the  fact  that  all  rational  elective  systems- 
in  secondary  schools  are,  and,  from  their  very 
nature,  must  be,  to  a  large  extent,  self -limiting. 


THE   EEQUIEEMENTS   IN   COLLEGE  ENG- 
LISH  FROM   THE   STANDPOINT   OF 
THE   PREPARATORY  SCHOOLS 

During  the  Boer  war,  now  so  fortunately 
ended,  there  appeared  in  one  of  the  Enghsh 
comic  papers  a  cartoon  representing  a  cabinet 
meeting.  The  eminent  statesmen  composing 
the  EngUsh  cabinet  of  that  time  were  evidently 
sorely  tried  to  find  some  plausible  explanation 
of  the  well-known  British  defeats  in  South  Africa. 
But  Lord  Salisbury  with  the  Micawber  hopeful- 
ness of  the  average  politician  is  represented  in 
the  cartoon  as  expressing  the  following  highly 
gratifying  opinion:  "  It  doesn't  make  any  differ- 
ence what  we  say,  so  long  as  we  all  say  the 
same  thing."  Now  whether  Lord  Sahsbury 
had  heard  of  the  scheme  of  uniform  require- 
ments in  English  or  not,  I,  for  one,  cannot  state 
with  any  degree  of  positiveness,  but  the  senti- 
ments which  he  expressed  to  the  other  members 
of  his  cabinet  are  so  harmonious  with  the  spirit 
of  the  American  uniform  requirements  in  Eng; 

(37) 


38  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

lish,  that  his  utterance  hints  at  coincidence  if 
not  collusion. 

Before  going  any  farther  in  this  discussion,  I 
wish  to  formulate  at  least  one  basic  principle  of 
the  successful  teaching  of  English,  namely  this : 
That  teaching  of  English  which  results  in  awak- 
ening in  the  pupil  a  life-long  interest  in  the 
literature  and  the  language  of  England  and  of 
America,  may  be  called  truly  successful.  This 
great  principle  of  arousing  a  permanent  interest 
in  a  subject  as  a  test  of  successful  teaching  in 
it,  is  in  no  sense  restricted  to  English;  but  it  is, 
I  believe,  indisputably  and  peculiarly  true  of  Eng- 
lish. And  yet  under  the  present  ''storm  and 
stress"  of  college  English  requirements  how 
many  pupils  are  roused  to  permanent  enthusi- 
asm for  the  best  things  in  English  literature  ? 
To  go  still  farther,  even  after  an  extended  course 
in  English  literature  at  our  best  universities, 
how  general,  pray,  is  a  permanent  enthusiasm 
for  English  literature  and  appreciation  of  what 
is  best  in  it  ? 

I  know  a  little  girl  who  told  me  in  confidence 
that  she  always  liked  the  Sistine  Madonna  very 
much,  until  she  had  to  study  it  in  school,  and 


REQUIREMENTS   IN   COLLEGE  ENGLISH  39 

that  since  that  time  she  simply  detested  it. 
And  this  reminds  me  of  some  curious  doggerel 
verses  every  stanza  of  which  ended  with  the 
words:  "  Do  you  know  why  ?  "  Brethren,  con- 
fession is  said  to  be  good  for  the  soul,  and  in 
the  spirit  of  this  great  truth,  I  would  ask :  Isn't 
there  something  extremely  pedantic,  unnatural, 
unnecessary,  and  repulsive,  about  the  present 
system  of  college  entrance  requirements  in  Eng- 
lish ?  Is  it  in  any  sense  strange  that  the  most 
distinguished  of  American  Headmasters  refers 
to  these  requirements  as  that  "  loathsome  thing 
known  as  college  English  ^"^  ?  Said  an  eminent 
physician  to  me:  ''Yes,  my  son,  George,  was 
conditioned  in  English  at  Harvard,  and  I'm 
mighty  glad  of  it.  Of  all  the  senseless  and 
stupid  ways  of  trying  to  get  a  boy  to  love  Eng- 
lish literature  this  dissecting  and  quizzing 
method  is  the  worst."  By  a  parity  of  methods 
a  person  should  be  unmercifully  quizzed  on 
everything  connected  and  unconnected  with  a 
juicy  sirloin  steak,  while  the  real  thing  for  him 
to  do  is  to  eat  it.  He  will  assimilate  it,  never 
fear,  and  it  will  do  him  some  good.  He  needn't 
understand  all  the  processes  of  digestion,  or  chase 


40  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

the  steak  back  to  the  slaughter-house,  "  in  order 
to  derive  benefit  from  the  course",  as  the  col- 
lege catalogues  say.  Some  persons  are  very 
sceptical  about  the  educational  possibilities  of  the 
colored  race,  but  personally  I  am  fully  persuaded 
that  the  young  negro  who  asked  to  be  excused 
from  physiology  on  the  ground  that  it  made  him 
feel  dizzy  to  think  of  his  insides  was  on  the 
verge  of  rediscovering  a  great  educational  truth, 
as  applicable  to  college  English  requirements  as 
it  is  to  physiology ;  and  this  educational  truth  is 
'"  Let  well  enough  alone."  But  the  college  re- 
quirements say:  '^  Cut  well  enough  into  small 
pieces,  dissect  it,  say  numberless  useless  things 
about  it;  prepare  to  meet  your  examiners!  " 
And  this  reminds  me  of  the  methods  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army  in  the  rural  regions :  You  are  rid- 
ing along  in  the  country  with  a  clear  conscience 
and  a  happy  heart,  drinking  in  with  every  breath 
health  and  joy,  when  of  a  sudden  on  some 
prominent  bank  near  a  tumbled-down  barn  you 
see  a  design  in  paving-stones  or  leeks  or  some 
such  Puritanical  material  with  the  awful  words : 

"  Prepare  to  Meet  Thy  God." 

Of  course,  to  you,  being  a  good  Christian,  the 


REQUIREMENTS  IN  COLLEGE  ENGLISH     41 

thought  is  decidedly  dehghtf  ul,  but  some  way  the 
sun  goes  under  a  cloud  for  a  time.  Now  it  is  with 
similar  feelings  that  the  pupils  come  up  for  ex- 
amination in  English.  The  process  of  tearing 
thoughts  up  by  the  roots,  to  see  why  they  grow 
that  way,  may  be  radical,  but  it  certainly  leaves 
the  thoughts  in  bad  shape. 

I  have  said  elsewhere,  and  will  repeat  with  the 
permission  of  The  Journal  of  Education,  some- 
thing which  has  a  bearing  on  the  subject  under 
discussion: 

It  is  highly  probable  that  more  time  is  wast- 
ed in  well-meant  attempts  to  teach  English  liter- 
ature than  is  thrown  away  on  almost  any  other 
equally  important  subject.  The  scope  of  this 
remark  is  not  restricted  to  elementary  or  to  sec- 
ondary schools,  but  applies  most  forcibly  to  the 
colleges.  Some  years  ago  there  appeared  in  Life 
an  excellent  cartoon  representing  our  old  friend 
Charon  ferrying  across  the  Styx  that  noted 
American  critic,  William  D.  Howells.  On  the 
opposite  bank  of  the  gloomy  river  the  gigantic 
shades  of  Thackeray  and  Dickens  were  making 
most  threatening  gestures  at  the  shade  of  How- 
ells, who,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  spite  of  our 


42  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

national  pride,  in  the  presence  of  such  giants 
looked  small  indeed.  ''  Criticism  is  easy,  art 
is  difficult, "  say  the  French,  an  injunction  which 
all  teachers  of  English  might  remember  with 
profit.  It  always  struck  me  as  strange  that  the 
best  writers  of  English  appear  to  furnish  college 
rhetoricians  with  the  most  numerous  and  the 
most  awful  examples  of  inaccuracy.  Perversely, 
enough,  no  doubt,  the  inference  that  I  draw 
from  this  fact  is,  that  great  writers  Uke  Shak- 
spere,  Johnson,  Scott,  George  Eliot,  Thackeray, 
Wordsworth,  Dickens,  Jane  Austen,  and  others, 
often  held  up  to  the  withering  scorn  of  college 
freshmen,  allowed  themselves  reasonable  free- 
dom in  their  really  beautiful  use  of  the  Enghsh 
language.  In  using  English  as  a  vehicle  of  ex- 
pression one  is  not  obliged  to  sit  bolt  upright 
everlastingly.  In  this  century  extraordinary 
emphasis  ought  to  be  laid  on  the  school  library. 
Instead  of  wasting  precious  hours  in  fatuous  at- 
tempts to  show  how  Scott  blundered,  how  Thack- 
eray was  mistaken,  how  Shakspere  was  not 
very  well-informed,  and  how  Jane  Austen  ought 
to  have  known  better,  the  genuine  teacher  will 
take  measures  to  get  his  pupils  to  read  the  actual 


REQUIREMENTS  IN   COLLEGE  ENGLISH  43 

books  themselves  without  very  strenuous  atten- 
tion to  second-hand  notes  or  queer  figures  of 
speech. 

As  a  rule,  foot-notes  are  not  negotiable.  Say- 
ing things  about  authors  and  their  books  has  very 
little  to  do  with  creating  a  love  of  literature. 
The  average  teacher  whether  in  college  or  out  is 
a  very  poor  competitor  of  the  great  writers 
themselves.  Many  a  lover  of  good  literature 
has  been  made  such  by  having  free  access  to  a 
good  Ubrary  in  early  childhood.  If  the  masters 
of  poetry,  fiction,  history,  and  travel,  cannot 
hold  their  own  in  the  minds  of  boys  and  girls, 
what  earthly  good  are  quizzes,  and  examina- 
tions, out-of-the-way  information,  and  inter- 
minable prating  going  to  do?  There  must  be 
something  radically  wrong  about  a  boy  who  does 
not  like  Scott,  that  is,  unless  Scott  is  to  be  used 
for  purposes  of  dissection.  Francois  Magendie, 
the  eminent  vivisector,  on  account  of  his  experi- 
ments on  animals  was  called,  perhaps  unjustly, 
''the  hellish  Magendie".  There  are  many 
''hellish  Magendies ",  literary  vivisectionists, 
among  teachers  of  English,  and  of  such  is  the 
kingdom    of   college   examiners.     That  is  one 


44  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

reason  for  the  fact  that  some  boys  prefer  dime 
and  half-dime  novels  on  which  no  questions  are 
to  be  asked,  to  the  rarest  products  of  the  highest 
genius  which  have  to  be  '^  got  up  "  for  exami- 
nation. 

The  editors  of  text-books  in  college  English 
have  made,  no  doubt,  a  honest  effort  to  meet  the 
requirements.  Occasionally,  to  be  sure,  they 
fall  into  the  venial  error  of  imagining  that  they 
themselves  wrote  the  English  classics.  For  ex- 
ample, the  editor  of  an  edition  of  Addison's 
'^  Sir  Roger  De  Coverley  Papers"  sent  me  a 
copy  with  the  compliments  of  the  author^  a 
thoughtful  and  delicate  attention  on  the  part  of 
Addison  not  bestowed  on  everyone  nowadays.  I 
take  at  random  one  of  the  most  recent  of  these 
precious  edited  English  Classics,  and  what  do  I 
find  ?  Fifty  pages  of  Contents,  Prefatory  Note, 
Introduction,  Cosmography  of  the  Universe, 
Maps,  Individual  Assignments  for  Research, 
Suggestive  Questions,  Suggestions  for  Rhetoric 
Study,  and  Study  Helps;  Ninety-one  pages  of 
the  actual  classic,  including  the  arguments  of 
other  books ;  Twenty-four  pages  of  notes ;  Nine 
pages  of  Index.   Many  of  these  alleged  notes  con- 


REQUIREMENTS  IN   COLLEGE  ENGLISH  45 

sist  merely  of  the  injunction,  ''  See  dictionary  or 
encyclopaedia  "5  which  is  suggestive  of  the  old 
trick  of  writing  on  one  page  of  the  big  dictionary, 
''see  page  1093",  in  the  hope  that,  when  the 
witless  one  turns  to  ''page  1093",  he  will  find 
the  advice,  "see  page  505",  and  so  on.  Such 
notes  illustrate  what  may  properly  be  called 
"Will-o'-the-wisp"  editing.  To  illustrate  this 
method  still  further,  let  me  cite  the  note  on  line 
572: 

"  Serbonian  Bog.  See  International  Diction- 
ary,  Standard  Dictionary,  or  any  encyclopaedia. 
See  Map  of  Egypt  and  Arabia,  p.  XXXIX." 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  this  note  is  rather 
hard  on  the  authorities  cited.  Still  the  editor  is 
not  without  some  good  ideas,  as,  when  he  says: 
"  It  seems  to  the  present  editor  that  a  great 
hindrance  to  the  study  of  such  poems  as  Para- 
dise Lost  is  the  practice  of  constantly  calling  the 
pupil's  attention  from  the  study  of  the  poem  to 
some  parallel  in  Homer,  Vergil,  or  Dante.  Most 
teachers  will  agree  that  this  is  likely  to  prevent 
the  eager  following  of  the  tremendous  and  often 
headlong  action  of  Milton's  "mighty  universal 
drama  ".     And  again  when  he  says : 


46  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

''  In  the  study  of  these  Unes,  nothing  should 
draw  the  pupil  away  from  the  use  of  the  imagin- 
ation.  Notes  and  references  often  serve  to  do 
this.     Study,  not  about  the  poem,  but  the  poem. ' ' 

I  once  knew  an  uneducated  retail  fish-dealer 
who  used  to  read  "  Paradise  Lost "  by  the  hour, 
and  who  used  to  be  so  deeply  affected  by  its  gran- 
deur, that  he  never  read  it  without  tears.  I  am 
morally  certain  that  he  did  this  without  benefit 
of  notes  or  comments.  I  have  known  persons 
who  read''  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  with  implicit 
beUef  in  the  verity  of  every  character  and  the 
truth  of  every  incident.  And  they  reminded 
me  of  the  words  "  Except  ye  become  as  a  little 
child,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

And  so  my  sympathies  go  out  to  the  applicant 
for  admission  to  college  who  wrote  on  his  paper 
in  answer  to  the  question:  "  Who  were  Chaucer's 
Contemporaries?"  Chaucer  had  no  Contempo- 
raries. Nor  do  I  think  it  very  strange  that  an- 
other applicant  wrote  in  reply  to  the  question : 
"  Who  was  Silas  Marner,  and  what  were  the 
causes  of  his  unpopularity  ?  " : 

"  Silas  Marner  was  the  name  of  a  poem  by 


REQUIREMENTS   IN   COLLEGE  ENGLISH  47 

Coleridge.  The  cause  of  his  unpopularity  was 
that  he  killed  the  albatross  that  caused  the  wind 
to  blow." 

Nor  am  I  surprised  at  the  naive  confession  of 
an  athletic  young  man  to  the  effect  that  the 
wrestling  match  carried  him  through  his  answer 
to  a  question  on  ''As  You  Like  It ". 

That  rare  and  beautiful  genius,  Charles  Lamb, 
says  in  his  famous  Essay  on  "  Mackery  End,  in 
Hertfordshire  ",  speaking  of  his  cousin  Bridget: 

''  Her  education  in  youth  was  not  much  at- 
tended to ;  and  she  happily  missed  all  that  train 
of  female  garniture  which  passeth  by  the  name 
of  accomplishments.  She  was  tumbled  early, 
by  accident  or  design,  into  a  spacious  closet  of 
good  old  English  reading,  without  much  selec- 
tion or  prohibition,  and  browsed  at  will  upon 
that  fair  and  wholesome  pasturage.  Had  I 
twenty  girls,  they  should  be  brought  up  exactly 
in  this  fashion.  I  know  not  whether  their 
chance  in  wedlock  might  not  be  diminished  by 
it,  but  I  can  answer  for  it  that  it  makes  (if  the 
worst  comes  to  the  worst)  most  incomparable 
old  maids." 

''  What  ?  "  the  pedants  will  exclaim :   "  Turn- 


48  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

bled  early  by  accident  or,  worse  yet,  by  design, 
into  a  closet  of  good  old  English  reading  ?  No 
examinations  ?  No  written  exercises  ?  No  para- 
phrases ?  No  figure-hunts  ?  No  topical  analy- 
ses ?  No  parallel  passages  ?  No  notes  ?  No 
indexes  ?  No  introductions  ?  No  exposes  of 
the  author's  weak  points  ?  No  comment  on  the 
Serbonian  Bog  ?  Why,  look  at  the  absurdity  of 
such  a  plan !  There  would  be  hardly  anything 
left  except  what  the  authors  actually  wrote ! 
How  could  the  poor  girl  have  known  what  to 
do  without  a  note  saying :  '  Eead  over  and  over, 
and  try  to  image  ? '  " 
To  all  of  which  objectors  and  objections  I  reply : 
"  Please,  don't  come  at  me  that  way!  Go  at 
Charles  Lamb.  I  merely  quoted  him,  but,  to 
tell  the  truth,  I  am  persuaded  that  he  is  right." 


THE  SCHOOL  MAGAZINE  CLUB 

The  great  value  of  professional  as  well  as  of 
general  literature  is  becoming  more  and  more 
generally  recognized.  Eminent  physicians  club 
together,  and  for  a  comparatively  trifling  ex- 
pense get  the  benefit  of  all  the  best  medical 
magazines.  Progressive  teachers  who  really 
desire  to  make  their  chosen  calling  a  genuine 
profession  may  profit  by  the  physicians'  exam- 
ple. It  is  of  no  avail  for  teachers  to  say  that 
they  can  get  all  the  best  magazines  at  the  public 
library.  Potential  energy  is  not  kinetic  energy. 
Magazines  in  the  library  are  hot  magazines  in 
the  teachers'  hands.  Inertia  is  a  force  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Consequently,  every  corps  of 
teachers  ought  to  have  a  local  professional  or 
semi-professional  magazine  club.  The  teachers 
should  agree  on  the  amount  of  money  which 
they  feel  willing  and  able  to  contribute.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  club  early  in  the  school  year  each 
teacher  should  indicate  his  preference  with  re- 
gard to    the    various  magazines.     As  there  is 

(49) 


60  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

some  danger  at  the  present  time  that  prof  ession- 
aUsm  may  encroach  upon  that  broad  humanity 
so  essential  to  the  truly  successful  pursuit  of  any 
large  occupation,  it  is  well  to  include  in  the  list 
of  magazines  some  of  the  most  meritorious  of 
those  devoted  to  general  hterature.  It  is  a  curi- 
ous fact  that  some  purely  professional  magazines 
are  almost  as  soporific  as  opiates.  One  stimu- 
lating sentence  is  worth  volumes  of  "  dry-as- 
dust "  prosing.  '' Pulvis  et  umbra  sumus " 
might  well  be  taken  as  a  motto  by  certain  well- 
meaning  editors  unfortunately  devoid  of  a  sense 
of  humor. 

Education  has  become  the  absorbing  master- 
passion  of  American  Ufe.  Even  the  passion  for 
wealth  pays  reverent  tribute  to  the  passion  for 
education.  And  this  great  fact  of  our  throbbing 
American  Ufe  is  imaged  in  the  journals  and 
magazines  of  the  time  by  their  constant  pubh- 
cation  of  valuable  articles  on  educational  subjects. 

Half-hearted  recruits  in  the  cause  of  education 
must  rub  their  eyes  in  astonishment,  as  they 
observe  the  growing  importance  attached  to  a 
caUing  once  ridiculed,  if  not  despised.  Said  an 
acquaintance  of  mine  recently : 


THE   SCHOOL  MAGAZINE    CLUB  51 

^'  The  teacher  who  can  conduct  a  school  as 
it  ought  to  be  conducted ;  who  can  leave  the 
mark  of  his  personality  upon  all  of  his  pupils, 
is  engaged  in  the  highest  of  all  occupations,  and 
is  the  greatest  and  best  of  men." 

I  commend  this  remark  to  some  of  the  faint- 
hearted ones  who  ^' hate  children",  yet  still 
continue  in  the  profession  of  teaching. 

If  there  are  still  teachers  who  say  that  they 
can  ''  get  no  good  from  educational  journals  ", 
and  who  still  believe  that  the  science  and  the  art 
of  teaching  ''  come  by  nature  ",  they  would  do 
well  to  consider  the  very  easily  substantiated 
fact  that  the  leaders  in  all  the  professions  attach 
great  importance  to  the  best  current  professional 
literature. 

By  way  of  closing  this  article  let  me  call  at- 
tention to  a  simple  device  to  secure  regular  cir- 
culation of  the  magazines  among  the  teachers. 
Blanks  should  be  printed  or  typewritten  in  some 
form  similar  to  this . — 

High  School. 

Magazine  Club. 

Received.        Passed 

Mr.  Smith. 


62  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Mr.  Brown. 
Miss  White. 
Miss  Gray. 
Miss  Blank. 
Miss  Fiske. 

Magazines  may  be  kept  one  week. 

These  forms  should  be  pasted  on  each  maga- 
zine as  it  arrives.  Each  teacher  records  the  date 
of    receiving    and  of    passing  the   magazines. 

This  plan  has  been  in  successful  operation  at 
the  Brighton  High  School  for  the  past  few  years, 
and  has  proved  to  be  stimulating  and  valuable. 


HOW  TO  BUILD  UP  A  LAEGE  LATIN 
VOOABULAEY 

Rev.  J.  H.  Bacon,  in  his  extremely  valuable 
"  Complete  Guide  to  the  Improvement  of  the 
Memory",  calls  attention  to  a  most  important 
fact  often  disregarded  in  the  teaching  of  Latin. 
He  says : — 

''  The  learning  of  a  language  comprehends 
the  learning  of  the  v^ords  of  the  language,  and 
the  changes  they  undergo  in  construction  and 
arrangement.  If,  then,  by  a  few  simple  rules 
many  of  these  changes  can  be  pointed  out,  the 
pupil  will  know  thousands  of  words  without  the 
wearisome  task  of  learning  them  one  by  one." 

Mr.  Bacon  then  proceeds  to  show  the  relation 
of  certain  English  endings  to  the  corresponding 
Latin  terminations.  Following  Mr.  Bacon's  ar- 
rangement, I  have  made  a  partial  list  of  Eng- 
Ush  words  ending  in  ence,  and  have  placed  in  a 
parallel  column  the  corresponding  Latin  words, 
which   can    be    given    almost    instantaneously 

(53) 


64 


EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 


whether  the  pupil  ever  had  them  before  or  not. 
The  rule  is  as  follows : — 

1.  ''  Most  English  words  ending  in  nee  or  ncy 
are  made  into  Latin  by  changing  ce  or  cy  into 
tia." 

Mr.  Bacon  then  gives  two  illustrations  of  this 
rule,  namely,  patience,  patientia,  and  clemency, 
dementia. 

Let  us  consider  some  further  illustrations  of 
this  rule  for  words  ending  in  ence.  I  will  give 
the  words,  as  they  occurred  to  me : — 


ENGLISH 

1.  Patience 

2.  Continence 

3.  Eeticence 

4.  Correspondence 

5.  Keference 

6.  Difference 

7.  Indifference 

8.  Pertinence 

9.  Evidence 

10.  Essence 

11.  Potence 

12.  Impotence 

13.  Permanence 


LATIN 

Patientia 

Continentia 

Eeticentia 

Correspondentia 

Eeferentia 

Differentia 

Indifferentia 

Pertinentia 

Evidentia 

Essentia 

Potentia 

Impotentia 

Permanentia 


HOW   TO   BUILD   A  LATIN   VOCABULARY         66 


14.  Dependence 

16.  Independence 

16.  Incontinence 

17.  Superintendence 

18.  Prudence 

19.  Providence 

20.  Improvidence 

21.  Abstinence 

22.  Diffidence 

23.  Confidence 

24.  Inference 
26.  Conference 

26.  Affluence 

27.  Deference 

28.  Influence 

29.  Confluence 

30.  Afference 

31.  Existence 

32.  Consistence 

33.  Desistence 

34.  Impertinence 
36.  Circumference 

36.  Indigence 

37.  Imprudence 

38.  Eminence 


Dependentia 

Independentia 

Incontinentia 

Superintendentia 

Prudentia 

Providentia 

Improvidentia 

Abstinentia 

Diffidentia 

Confidentia 

Inferentia 

Conferentia 

Affluentia 

Deferentia 

Influentia 

Confluentia 

Afferentia 

Existentia 

Consistentia 

Desistentia 

Impertinentia 

Circumferentia 

Indigentia 

Imprudentia 

Eminentia 


66  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

39.  Prominence  Prominentia 

40.  Persistence  Persistentia 

41.  Insistence  Insistentia 

42.  Resilience  Eesilientia 

43.  Immanence  Immanentia 

44.  Imminence  Imminentia 

45.  Eloquence  Eloquentia 

46.  Magniloquence  Magniloquentia 

47.  Grandiloquence  Grandiloquentia 

48.  Ventriloquence  Ventriloquentia 

49.  Competence  Competentia 

50.  Audience  Audientia. 

This  list  might  be  extended  greatly.  As  soon 
as  pupils  understand  the  corresponding  termin- 
ations, the  Latin  may  be  given  for  the  English, 
or  the  English  for  the  Latin,  with  the  great- 
est ease. 

There  are,  I  am  aware,  several  objections  to 
this  scheme  of  increasing  the  vocabulary.  It 
may  be  said: — 

(1)  Some  of  the  English  words  are  not  in  the 
English  language. 

(2)  Some  of  the  alleged  Latin  words  are  not 
in  the  Latin  language. 

(3)  Some  of  the  Latin  words  are  not  classical 
Latin. 


HOW  TO  BUILD  A  LATIN  VOCABULARY    67 

In  reply  to  objections  first,  second,  and  third, 
I  would  say : — 

(1)  There  is  no  law  forbidding  well-formed 
additions  either  to  the  English  or  to  the  Latin 
language. 

(2)  Just  as  not  all  English  words  are  Eliza- 
bethan, so  not  all  Latin  words  are  classical. 

I  believe  that  such  lists  of  words  have  great 
value.  Their  value  will  increase  in  direct  pro- 
portion to  the  student's  knowledge  of  English, 
Latin,  French,  and  other  languages,  especially 
the  Eomance  tongues. 

For  example,  each  one  of  the  fifty  words 
given  above  might  well  suggest  not  simply  the 
corresponding  noun  in  Latin  or  in  English,  but 
the  verb,  and  its  participle,  often  used  as  an 
adjective,  together  with  the  various  other  words, 
simple  and  compound,  which  naturally  group 
themselves  about  the  same  root.  To  the  com- 
parative philologist  a  mine  of  inexhaustible  rich- 
ness is  at  least  indicated.  The  surprising  cor- 
respondences of  the  Greek  with  the  Latin,  to- 
gether with  the  intimate  connection  of  English, 
French,  Italian,  and  Spanish  with  one  another, 
and  with  Latin,  offer  a  magnificent  field  for  work. 


68  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Not  only  borrowed  words,  but  also  kindred 
words  will  marshal  their  forces  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  general  memory,  aided  by  the  lieu- 
tenants. Attention,  Arrangement,  and  Associa- 
tion,''  the  three  A's,"  as  Mr.  Quick  so  aptly  calls 
them. 

As  many  of  the  Latin  words  in  English  come 
to  us  through  the  French,  it  will  seem  only 
natural  that  with  a  very  few  changes  of  vowels, 
or  accents,  the  English  of  the  list  just  given  will 
become  French. 

Herbert  Spencer's  dictum  to  the  effect  that  we 
must  proceed  "  from  the  known  to  the  un- 
known ' '  in  education  seems  to  have  been  care- 
fully avoided  in  most  works  ostensibly  devoted 
to  the  teaching  of  elementary  Latin.  To  con- 
tinue the  building  up  a  Latin  vocabulary,  let  us 
make  one  list  of  English  words  ending  in  tude 
and  another  list  of  Latin  words  ending  in  tudo. 
If  by,  merely  changing  e  to  o  we  are  able  to 
give,  off  hand,  a  good  number  of  reputable  Latin 
words,  surely  the  gain  is  considerable.  By  such 
a  method  we  not  only  learn  a  larger  number  of 
words  than  that  usually  mastered,  but  we  ac- 
quire these  words  without  straining  the  memory. 


HOW  TO  BUILD  A  LATIN  VOCABULARY 


59 


'^  Train,  not  strain,' 

plies  to  every  form  of 

Ei^GLlSH 

1.  Aptitude 

2.  Gratitude 

3.  Altitude 

4.  Latitude 

5.  Longitude 

6.  Lassitude 

7.  Desuetude 

8.  Solitude 

9.  Promptitude 

10.  Magnitude 

11.  Multitude 

12.  Solicitude 

13.  Attitude 

14.  Ingratitude 

15.  Inaptitude 

16.  Plenitude 

17.  Amplitude 

18.  Rectitude 

19.  Quietude 

20.  Disquietude 

21.  Similitude 

22.  Dissimilitude 


'  is  an  aphorism  that  ap- 
mental  activity. 

LATIN 

Aptitudo 

Gratitudo 

Altitudo 

Latitudo 

Longitudo 

Lassitudo 

Desuetudo 

Solitudo 

Promptitudo 

Magnitudo 

Multitudo 

SoUicitudo 

Attitudo 

Ingratitudo 

Inaptitudo 

Plenitudo 

Amplitudo 

Rectitudo 

Quietudo 

Disquietudo 

Similitudo 

Dissimilitudo 


60  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

23.  Fortitude  Fortitudo 

24.  Platitude  Platitudo 

25.  Sanctitude  Sanctitudo 

26.  Turpitude  Turpitudo 

27.  Ineptitude  Ineptitudo 

28.  Beatitude  .       Beatitudo 

29.  Mansuetude  Mansuetudo 

30.  Consuetude  Oousuetudo 

31.  Exactitude  Exactitudo 

32.  Servitude  Servitudo 

33.  Certitude  Certitudo,  etc. 
Psychologists  tell  us  that  it  is  easier  to  remem- 
ber two  words  having  some  connecting  link  than 
it  is  to  remember  one  isolated  word.  If  we  re- 
member that  e  as  printed  looks  like  a  broken 
link,  and  o  like  a  closed  one,  there  will  be  no 
difficulty  in  recalling  the  fact  that  the  open  link 
is  English  and  the  closed  link  Latin  in  the  case 
of  ''  tude  "  and  "  tudo  "  words. 

To  a:pply  these  methods,  we  proceed  next  to 
derive  from  our  list  of  nouns  the  adjectives  to 
be  remembered  together  with  them.      The  fol- 
lowing list  suggests  itself  immediately : 
aptus  gratus  desuetus 

longus  lassus  magnus 


HOW  TO  BUILD  A  LATIN  VOCABULARY 


61 


solus  promptus         ingratus 

multus  soUicitus  amplus 

inaptus  plenus  disquietus 

rectus  quietus  fortis 

similis  dissimilis  turpis 

platus  sanctus  mansuetus 

ineptus  beatus  servus 

consuetus     exactus  latus 

certus  altus. 

In  connection  with  the  thirty-three  nouns, 
taken  at  random,  may  be  noted  several  interest- 
ing facts: — 

First,  without  any  difficulty  thirty-two  Latin 
adjectives  may  be  recalled  in  connection  with 
the  nouns. 

Second,  the  reason  for  the  fact  that  an  adjec- 
tive is  not  suggested  at  once  for  the  noun  atti- 
tude or  attitudo  is  this:  ''Attitude"  is  really 
another  form  of  ''aptitude",  hence  it  must  be 
referred  to  aptus. 

Third,  servus,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  an 
adjective  as  well  as  a  noun. 

Fourth,  inaptus  and  ineptus  must  be  consid- 
ered as  practically  the  same  word. 

Fifth,  platitude  appears  to  have  come  through 


62  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

the  French,  but  as  that  language  is  really  a  kind 
of  modern  Latin,  and  as  the  word  ' '  platus  ' '  or 
''  platys  "  exists  in  ancient  Latin  and  in  Greek, 
platitudo  may  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the  list. 

Mr.  Bardeen,  the  well-known  Syracusan,  tells 
us  of  a  visit  that  he  made  to  a  place  where 
''  correlation  "  reigned  supreme.  As  the  various 
grades  of  the  schools  were  at  work  on  the  in- 
spiring subject  of  ''goose",  the  singing  teacher 
had  taken  great  pains  to  make  the  music  har- 
monious with  the  course  of  study.  According- 
ly, in  place  of  the  ordinary  syllables  the  word 
''  hunk  ",  (query,  why  not  "  honk  "  ?)  the  cry  of 
the  goose,  was  used  for  the  scale  exercises.  In 
Mr.  Bardeen's  words: 

''The  singing  teacher  was  at  a  good  deal  of 
pains  to  imitate  the  '  hunk '  of  the  goose  and 
had  the  children  practise,  until  they  got  some 
sort  of  an  imitation  of  it.  Then  this  '  hunk ' 
was  sung,  first  to  the  scale  hunk,  hunk,  hunk, 
hunk,  hunk,  hunk,  hunk,  hunk,  and  down 
again;  then  to  the  major  chord,  hunk,  hunk, 
hunk,  hunk;  then  to  the  minor  chord,  then  to 
certain  exercises,  very  much  like  the  usual 
vocalization  except  that  instead  of  the  traditional 


HOW  TO  BUILD  A  LATIN  VOCABULARY    63 

ah,  the  children  were  to  sing  hunk,  hunk,  hunk. " 
This  anecdote  illustrates  to  perfection  the 
natural  results  obtained  by  those  unphilosophical 
teachers  who  think  that  every  general  law  of 
mind  must  necessarily  apply  with  unvarying 
precision  to  all  pupils  alike.  The  French  have 
a  proverb:  "  II  n'y  a  pas  des  maladies;  il  y  a  des 
malades. "  ''There  are  no  sicknesses ;  there  are 
sick  people. ' '  That  is  to  say,  each  case  must  be 
treated  individually. 

The  result,  then,  to  be  derived  from  any  edu- 
cational principle,  or  from  any  method  or  device, 
will  depend  almost  entirely  on  the  teacher's  skill 
in  applying  such  principle,  method,  or  device,  to 
the  needs  of  the  individual  pupil. 

To  resume  the  main  subject,  the  building  up 
of  a  Latin  vocabulary,  I  believe  that  the  English 
side  of  Latin  has  been  neglected  too  long.  Take, 
for  example,  the  following  group  of  words : — 


1. 

Victor 

7. 

Elevator 

2. 

Executor 

8. 

Eenovator 

3. 

Administrator 

9. 

Monitor 

4. 

Orator 

10. 

Eesonator 

5, 

Coadjutor 

11. 

Detonator 

6. 

Commutator 

12. 

Abnegator 

64 


EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 


13.  Negotiator 

14.  Cultivator 

15.  Personator 

16.  Imitator 

17.  Curator 

18.  Abator 

19.  Senator 

20.  Inventor 

21.  Inspector 

22.  Testator 

23.  Adjutator 

24.  Investigator 

25.  Manipulator 


32.  Eradicator 

33.  Navigator 

34.  Abrogator 

35.  Insulator 

36.  Emancipator 

37.  Associator 

38.  Auditor 

39.  Authenticator 

40.  Barometor 

41.  Barrator 

42.  Calumniator 

43.  Calculator 

44.  Capitulator 


26.  Demonstrator    45.  Numerator 

27.  Depredator        46.  Denominator 


28.  Depositor 

29.  Denunciator 

30.  Advocator 

31.  Radiator 


47.  Enumerator 

48.  Enunciator 

49.  Fascinator 

50.  Gesticulator,  etc. 
There  are  several  things  to  notice  about  this 

list: — 

1.  The  words  are  all  in  the  English  language. 

2.  With  certain  reservations  the  words  are  all 
in  the  Latin  language. 

3.  "  Tor  "  denotes  the  agent. 


HOW  TO  BUILD  A  LATIN  VOCABULARY    65 

4.  A  feminine  form  may  be  found  for  these 
words  in  Latin  by  changing  ''tor  "  to  '' trix ". 

5.  In  many  EngUsh  words  we  find  the  "  trix  '^ 
form  also. 

6.  In  many  English  words  ^^ tress"  takes  the 
place  of  ''trix". 

7.  In   French   "teur"and   "trice"   replace 
"tor"  and  "trix". 


DEBATING  IN  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

I  wish  to  make  a  plea  for  the  organization  of 
debating  societies  in  all  of  our  secondary  schools, 
and  I  am  going  to  do  this  from  the  conviction 
that  such  societies,  if  properly  managed,  may 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  our  country.  The 
average  American  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be 
able  to  speak  with  clearness,  ease,  and  effective- 
ness before  his  fellow-citizens.  His  enunciation 
and  his  pronunciation  ought  to  be  vastly  more 
correct  than  they  are  at  present.  His  ability  to 
think  on  his  feet  should  be  greatly  increased. 
The  powers  of  persuading,  of  conveying  ideas 
in  effective  language,  of  detecting  fallacious 
reasoning,  of  publicly  maintaining  the  rights  of 
the  people,  cannot  be  given  too  much  attention. 
An  experience  of  twenty-three  years  in  connec- 
tion with  debating  societies  enables  me  to  speak 
with  a  certain  posit  iveness  of  conviction  on  these 
subjects.  It  is  my  belief  that  too  little  credit  has 
been  given  the  old-fashioned  lyceum  for  the 
extraordinarily  excellent  results  sometimes  ob- 

(66) 


DEBATING  IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  67 

tained  under  the  so-called  ''  old  education".  If 
we  could  interrogate  the  spirits  of  American 
statesmen,  lawyers,  clergymen,  and  other  public 
men,  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that 
they  would  attribute  enormous  importance  to 
the  practice  of  debating.  I  am  fully  aware  of 
the  fact  that  many  otherwise  intelligent  persons 
are  strongly  opposed  to  debating,  whether  in 
secondary  schools  or  in  colleges.  "  I  am  tired," 
say  such  persons,  ''of  hearing  young  men  get 
up  and  talk  about  subjects  of  which  they  know 
nothing."  But,  Mr.  President,  if  public  debate 
and  speaking  were  restricted  to  those  who  know 
all  about  any  subject,  what  a  profound  and 
deathlike  silence  would  reign  over  the  known 
world !  Will  not  the  interest  stimulated  by  de- 
bate, the  study  of  authorities,  the  expression  of 
one's  ideas,  the  successful  or  even  unsuccessful 
attempts  to  refute  opposing  arguments,  develop 
power  and  increase  knowledge  ? 

It  may  be  asked,  in  the  first  place.  Ought  de- 
bating to  be  compulsory  or  elective?  I  have 
personally  tried  both  the  elective  and  the  com- 
pulsory plans,  with  satisfactory  results  in  both 
<5ases.     The  principal  objections  to  the  elective 


68  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

plan  are  these :  Fewer  pupils  are  benefited,  and 
those  who  most  need  the  training  are  very  likely 
to  hold  aloof.  The  most  timid,  who  might  with 
encouragement  do  well,  decline  through  fear  to 
take  the  course. 

Ought  the  debates  to  be  held  during  school 
hours?  Yes,  because  the  work  is  as  important 
as  any  other  part  of  the  curriculum.  Although 
elective  debating  societies  managed  wholly  by 
pupils  have  great  value,  I  am  strongly  of  the 
opinion  that  compulsory  societies  controlled  by 
a  teacher  are  productive  of  better  results.  It 
may  mitigate  the  idea  of  compulsion  to  have  the 
time  of  the  exercise  taken  from  the  regular 
school  hours.  If  compulsion,  so-called,  is  made 
sufficiently  interesting,  it  will  shade  into  election. 

For  the  last  twelve  years  it  has  been  my  prac- 
tice to  meet  once  a  week  throughout  the  school 
year  the  senior  and  junior  classes  of  my  school. 
These  two  classes  organize  themselves  into  a  de- 
bating society.  The  officers  are  a  president,  a- 
vice-president,  a  secretary,  a  treasurer,  and  an 
executive  committee.  The  officers  are  elected 
once  a  month  in  order  to  give  as  many  pupils 
as  possible  practice  in  presiding.     The  business- 


DEBATING  IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  69 

of  the  society  is  conducted  in  parliamentary 
form,  and  Robert's  ''Rules  of  Order"  is  taken 
as  the  guide  of  procedure.  The  society  is  divided 
into  six  sections,  and  each  section  is  subdivided 
into  affirmative  and  negative  sides.  Subjects 
for  debate  are  selected  by  the  teacher  in  charge, 
though  pupils  often  suggest  topics  that  are  ac- 
cepted, if  suitable.  There  are  admirable  books 
on  the  subject  of  debating,  and  some  of  them 
contain  specimen  debates  carefully  outlined  and 
provided  with  valuable  references.  ' '  Briefs  for 
Debate ' '  by  Brookings  and  Ringwalt,  published 
l3y  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  and  Matson's  ''Ref- 
erences for  Literary  Workers  ",  published  by  A. 
C  McClurg  &  Co.,  are  very  useful.  Of  course, 
it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  every  member  of 
the  debating  society  should  have  these  books, 
though  such  possession  is  "  a  consummation  de- 
voutly to  be  wished".  The  ages,  too,  of  de- 
baters, and  their  stage  of  mental  development, 
must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting and  highly  important  fact  that  certain 
subjects  that  are  most  stimulating  and  fascinat- 
ing to  the  mature  man,  may  have  but  slight  at- 
tractions for  the  growing  boy.     Hence,  all  books 


70  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

on  the  subject  of  debating  must  be  supplemented 
by  a  careful  study  of  particular  circumstances 
and  individual  pupils.  The  interest  in  debating 
depends  very  largely  on  a  proper  choice  of  sub- 
jects for  debate.  Experience  has  taught  me 
that  topics  similar  to  the  following  will  almost 
always  arouse  interest  among  pupils  of  the  last 
two  years  of  the  high  school — 

1.  Eesolved,  That  football  is  a  brutal  game. 

2.  Resolved,  That  high  school  girls  bring  more 
credit  to  the  school  than  high  school  boys  do. 

3.  Eesolved,  That  imperialism  is  a  wise  na- 
tional policy. 

4.  Resolved,  That  life  is  not  worth  living. 

5.  Resolved,  That  capital  punishment  ought 
to  be  abolished. 

6.  Resolved,  That  all  high  school  studies  ought 
to  be  elective. 

7.  Resolved,  That  prize  contests  are  a  benefit 
to  secondary  schools. 

8.  Resolved,  That  the  school  year  ought  to  be 
shortened. 

9.  Resolved,  That  all  executive  duties  in 
American  cities  should  be  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  the  mayor,  and  that  his  appointments 
should  not  require  confirmation. 


DEBATING  IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  71 

10.  Eesolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to 
restore  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  the  rate  of 
16  to  1. 

11.  Eesolved,  That  debating  is  the  most  im- 
portant exercise  in  the  high  school  course. 

Such  subjects  will  almost  invariably  stimulate 
interest,  the  handmaid  of  memory.  While  it  is 
well  to  allow  pupils  to  do  their  own  thinking,  so 
far  as  possible,  still  an  outline,  brief,  or  syllabus 
of  debate,  either  with  or  without  references  to 
works  connected  with  the  subject,  is  a  perfectly 
legitimate  aid.  This  outline  or  brief  may  be 
prepared  by  the  teacher  in  a  suitable  note-book 
which  is  used  by  the  pupils  in  turn.  Each 
speaker  takes  two  points  which  he  elaborates, 
and  to  which  he  adds  other  points,  as  they  occur 
to  him. 

I  will  now  give  you  my  own  outline  of  a  de- 
bate on  the  subject:  ''  Eesolved,  That  football  is 
a  brutal  game. ' ' 

POINTS   FOR   THE   AFFIRMATIVE 

1.  Many  accidents  and  some  deaths  are  caused 
by  the  game. 

2.  The  exercise  is  too  violent. 


72  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

3.  The  muscles,  particularly  those  of  the 
heart,  get  strained. 

4.  An  entire  eleven  sometimes  fall  or  jump  on 
one  player. 

5.  Players  try  to  disable  their  opponents. 

6.  Some  players  purposely  strike  opponents. 

7.  There  is  a  tendency  to  cheat,  when  officers 
cannot  see  the  act. 

8.  There  is  a  tendency  to  ' '  claim ' '  everything, 
rightly  or  wrongly. 

9.  Bad  language  often  results  from  football. 

10.  Players  often  lose  their  tempers. 

11.  The  dishonorable  nature  of  the  game  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  so  many  players  are  pen- 
alized for  "  off-side  "  play,  "  holding  ",  etc. 

12.  Players  do  not  appear  to  care  much,  even 
when  members  of  their  own  eleven  are  seriously 
injured,  but  continue  to  play,  as  if  nothing  had 
happened. 

13.  The  game  as  a  whole  may  fairly  be  com- 
pared with  a  prize-fight  on  a  large  scale. 

14.  Some  prize-fighters  maintain  that  football 
would  be  more  honorable,  if  each  player  should 
single  out  and  squarely  fight  one  opponent. 

15.  (1)  Much  ill-feeling  is  caused  by  the  game. 


DEBATING  IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  73 

(2)  Betting  often  goes  on  at  football  games.  (3) 
There  is  often  a  disposition  to  insult  the  referee. 
(4)  Most  elevens  would  rather  win  dishonorably 
than  get  beaten  honorably.  (5)  Players  who  are 
not  members  of  any  school  sometimes  play  on 
school  elevens.  (6)  The  game  suggests  the  dis- 
gusting brutality  of  the  old  Roman  amphi- 
theatres. 

POINTS   FOR  THE   NEGATIVE 

1.  About  the  worst  physical  condition  a  boy 
can  get  into  is  one  in  which  he  is  afraid  to  en- 
gage in  manly  sports. 

2.  There  are  no  more  accidents  or  deaths,  pro- 
portionately, caused  by  football  than  by  driving, 
skating,  polo  playing,  swimming,  or  bicychng. 

3.  Football  affords  just  about  the  right  amount 
of  exercise  for  producing  good  circulation  and 
strong  bodies. 

4.  The  muscles,  particularly  those  of  the 
heart,  gain  great  strength  from  use,  and  lose 
that  flabbiness  that  causes  so  much  illness. 

5.  For  every  death  caused  by  football  a  hun- 
dred deaths  have  been  caused  by  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing causes:  (1)  Staying  in  the  house.  (2) 
Taking  no  exercise.     (3)  Overeating.     (4)  Lack 


74  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

of  sleep.     (5)  Eating  improper  food.     (6)  Tobac- 
co. (7)  Alcohol.  (8)  Drugs.  (9)  Patent  medicines. 

6.  Even  if  eleven  players  accidentally  fall  on 
an  opponent,  he  sometimes  seems  to  be  the  live- 
liest of  the  lot;  hence,  this  occasional  feature  of 
the  game  does  not  appear  to  be  fatal. 

7.  Players,  as  a  rule,  do  not  try  to  disable 
one  another.  Such  action  is  regarded  as  dishon- 
orable. 

8.  The  striking  of  opponents  is  contrary  to 
rules. 

9.  Cheating  is  not  tolerated  by  honorable 
players. 

10.  In  most  elevens  no  objectionable  language 
is  used. 

11.  One  of  the  points  of  the  game  is  to  keep 
the  temper. 

12.  Many  elevens  are  never  penalized. 

13.  Among  most  elevens  injuries  to  players 
are  always  deeply  regretted,  and  the  injured  are 
cared  for  most  thoughtfully. 

14.  The  game  cannot  sensibly  be  compared 
with  a  prize  fight,  as  no  such  comparison  has 
any  good  ground. 

15.  So  far  from  being  brutal,  the  game  is  one 


DEBATING   IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  75 

of  high  moral  and  intellectual  as  well  as  physi- 
cal excellence.  It  trains :  (1)  The  attention.  (2) 
The  will.  (3)  The  judgment.  (4)  It  teaches 
obedience.  (5)  Promptness.  (6)  Quick  observa- 
tion. (7)  Team-play.  (8)  Sacrifice  of  self  to 
the  common  good.  (9)  Loyalty.  (10)  '^  Plain 
living  and  high  thinking. ' ' 

You  may  say  that  my  outlines  are  mere  spe- 
cial pleadings,  and  full  of  fallacies  to  the  very 
brim.  But  consider  for  a  moment:  have  you 
not  heard  even  from  well-educated  adults  very 
similar  arguments,  and  is  it  not  wise  for  pupils 
to  hear  fallacies  stated,  and  to  learn  how  to  de- 
tect them  ? 

It  is,  of  course,  the  duty  of  the  chosen  speak- 
ers to  elaborate  the  suggestions,  and  to  add 
others  derived  from  their  own  thought  or  read- 
ing. It  is  well  to  establish  a  time  limit  of  five 
minutes  for  each  speaker. 

It  is  usually  much  better  for  the  debaters  to 
speak  from  the  platform,  than  from  their  desks. 
The  more  nearly  one  can  attain  to  ease  in  speak- 
ing the  better,  but  at  first  most  pupils  will  need 
the  help  of  notes,  and  some  will  find  it  hard  to 
do  much  without  written  remarks.     Probably 


76  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

the  best  way  for  the  average  pupil  is  to  speak 
from  notes.  The  practice  of  committiDg  a  de- 
bate tends  to  produce  artificiaUty.  It  will  read- 
ily appear  that  one  debate  may  be  extended  over 
more  than  one  day.  When  the  regularly  ap- 
pointed speakers  have  completed  their  part  of  the 
work,  the  question  should  be  brought  before  the 
entire  society  in  open  debate.  This  part  of  the 
plan  I  regard  as  one  of  the  most  valuable  and 
important  features,  for  it  is  in  the  open  debate 
that  the  powers  are  most  rapidly  and  effectively 
developed.  A  board  of  decision  should  be  ap- 
pointed for  every  debate,  and  should  retire,  when 
the  discussion  has  been  ended.  This  board  of 
decision,  after  considering  the  merits  of  the  de- 
baters, announces  its  verdict  by  its  chairman. 
Sometimes  it  is  well  to  have  the  society  vote  on 
the  merits  of  the  question.  Now,  whether 
pupils  of  high  school  age  know  anything  about 
questions  of  public  interest  or  not,  it  is  ex- 
tremely interesting  to  notice  how  wisely  they 
vote  on  such  matters.  Per  contra,  it  is  also  de- 
cidedly interesting  to  note  what  perfectly 
astounding  views  on  public  questions  are  held 
by  persons  of  great  maturity  and  elaborate  edu- 


DEBATING  IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  77 

cation.  And  when  I  say  "  astounding  views  ", 
I  mean  not  simply  views  that  differ  from  yours 
or  mine,  but  views  for  which  no  good  reasons  in 
point  of  fact  can  be  given.  While  experts,  un- 
doubtedly, occupy  a  most  important  field,  even 
though  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  find  them 
on  diametrically  opposite  sides  of  the  same  prob- 
lem, still  the  curious  fact  remains  that  the  best 
method  of  settling  questions  of  fact  is  the  jury 
method. 

It  is  well  to  have  a  critic  appointed  for  every 
meeting  of  the  society.  This  critic  should  be 
generous,  and,  consequently,  never  hypercriti- 
cal. As  in  all  well-regulated  parliamentary 
bodies,  no  personalities  or  offensive  remarks 
should  be  tolerated.  To  make  the  meetings 
more  varied,  entertainments,  consisting  of  dec- 
lamations, essays,  and  music,  should  be  provided 
at  regular  intervals. 

It  may  be  asked :  Do  pupils  really  care  about 
these  debates  ?  I  reply,  I  know  of  one  boy  who 
went  home  and  cried,  because  he  thought  the 
verdict  won  by  his  opponents  belonged  justly  to 
him.  I  have  seen  a  dozen  pupils  willing  and 
eager  to  speak  as  volunteers.     In  fact,   it  is 


78  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

sometimes  easier  to  get  pupils  to  speak  than  it 
is  to  get  them  to  stop  speaking. 

Possibly  insuflficient  stress  has  been  laid  on  the 
question  of  parliamentary  law.  Personally,  I 
regard  a  knowledge  of  this  subject  as  of  very 
great  practical  value,  and  I  have  found  such 
knowledge  of  very  great  assistance  on  many 
occasions.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  any  pupil  to 
learn  how  to  speak  clearly,  easily,  and  per- 
suasively. 

Some  may  ask:  Is  it  well  for  the  teacher  in 
charge  to  take  part  in  the  debates  ?  In  my 
opinion,  when  the  teacher  in  charge  of  the  soci- 
ety has  selected  the  subjects,  outlined  them,  and 
assigned  the  points  to  the  debaters;  when  he 
has  called  attention  to  points  of  order,  has  aided 
the  president  in  deciding  puzzhng  questions,  has 
from  time  to  time  given  the  society  informal 
talks  on  parliamentary  law  and  methods  of  de- 
bate ;  when  he  has  given  such  additional  aid  and 
comfort  as  may  be  required  of  him, — perhaps  it 
is  better  not  to  take  part  in  the  actual  debate. 
If  a  teacher  takes  part  too  strenuously  and  hap- 
pens to  speak  on  the  losing  side,  he  loses  prestige ; 
if  he  speaks  on  the  winning  side,  there  is  no 


DEBATING   IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  79 

glory  in  the  victory.  It  is  better  to  let  the  pupils 
fight  out  their  own  forensic  battles.  It  may  be 
well  sometimes,  after  the  debate  and  the  decis- 
ion, to  point  out  to  individual  speakers  the  rea- 
son for  their  failure  or  their  success.  For  exam- 
ple, it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  a  boy  to  be  able  in 
debate,  but  so  offensively  and  raspingly  right, 
that  he  cannot  hope  for  a  favorable  decision. 

An  important  question  upon  which  I  have  not 
touched  is  this :  ''Shall  the  debating  society  be 
co-educational?"  Why  not?  With  the  ex- 
tension of  the  franchise  to  women,  with  the 
wonderful  growth  of  women's  clubs,  with  the 
countless  opportunities  for  public  and  semi-pub- 
lic speaking,  why  should  not  woman  receive  such 
training  as  will  fit  her  for  the  duties  that  she 
must  perform  ?  It  is  my  experience  that  girls 
can  learn  to  speak  as  logically  and  acceptably 
as  boys,  and  that  in  no  small  number  of  cases 
they  have  been  known  to  surpass  boys.  If 
Smith,  Vassar,  or  Wellesley  should  challenge 
Yale  or  Princeton  to  a  debate,  and  the  challenge 
should  be  accepted, — well,  all  I  can  say  is  this: 
I  should  tremble  for  the  laurels  of  the  sons  of 
Eli  Yale  and  of  the  Princeton  Tigers.     Should 


80  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

the  challenge  be  still  further  extended  to  Har- 
vard, it  is  barely  possible  that  the  defenders  of 
the  crimson  might  have  a  fighting  chance. 

I  wish  to  speak  of  an  agency  which  I  have 
found  very  useful  in  creating  an  interest  in  de- 
bating societies,  I  mean  the  press.  Yes,  the 
much  maligned,  misunderstood,  misinterpreted, 
abused,  but  carefully  read  newspaper !  The  in- 
strument of  publicity  has  unlimited  power. 
Printer's  ink,  in  which  I  have  an  abiding  faith, 
has  all  the  magic  power  once  ascribed  to  the 
Black  Art.  Then  let  the  people  know  what 
your  debating  society  is  doing,  who  the  debaters 
are,  who  the  volunteers  are,  what  the  subject  is, 
who  spoke,  or  read,  or  sang,  or  played.  The 
local  papers  will  give  you  column  after  column 
of  the  best  space,  and  your  debating  society  will 
be  a  feature  not  merely  of  the  school,  but  of  the 
entire  community. 

Above  all  lower  aims  in  this  matter  of  debat- 
ing, let  there  be  one  highest  aim :  To  train  our 
youth  to  be  useful  in  their  day  and  generation, 
to  join  our  one  and  only  aristocracy,  the  aristoc- 
racy of  service,  to  be  stainless  soldiers  in  war, 
unflinching  patriots  in  peace. 


DEBATING  IN   SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  81 

In  those  wonderful  lines  of  Kipling's  dedicated 
to  Wolcott  Balestier's  memory  are  the  words: — 

**  And  ofttimes  cometh  our  wise  Lord  God,  master  of  every  trade. 
And  tells  them  tales  of  the  Seventh  Day — of  Edens  newly  made, — 
And  they  rise  to  their  feet  as  He  passes  by — gentlemen  unafraid.'^ 

The  fearlessness  and  usefulness  of  the  gentle- 
man and  gentlewoman  should  always  be  consid- 
ered of  primary  importance  in  every  scheme  of 
a  rational  education. 


COURTESY  IN  PUBLIC  HIGH  SCHOOLS 

Although  the  most  valuable  tuition  received 
by  pupils  of  any  age  is  undoubtedly  unconscious, 
and  while  courtesy  by  rule  must  always  be  piti- 
ably deficient,  still  there  must  be  certain  princi- 
ples on  which  true  courtesy  is  based,  and  certain 
methods  of  applying  these  principles  to  special 
cases.  Childhood  and  youth,  as  well  as  matur- 
ity, crave  attention  and  consideration.  In  some 
instances  the  child's  interest  in  its  games  or  oc- 
cupations is  directly  proportional  to  the  amount 
of  attention  it  attracts. 

A  young  man  once  said  to  me:  ''When  old 
Smith  wouldn't  recognize  me  on  the  street,  that 
spoiled  me. ' ' 

Apropos  of  such  a  remark  as  that,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  young  man  was  easily  "  spoiled  ". 
Perhaps  so,  and  yet  hatred  of  a  teacher,  of 
school,  of  learning,  and  of  wisdom  has  been  fos- 
tered by  the  mere  failure  to  recognize  a  pupil  on 
the  street. 

''Why  do  all  the  boys  raise    their   hats    to 

(82) 


COURTESY   IN   THE   PUBLIC    HIGH    SCHOOL      83 

you  ? ' '  asked  a  young  teacher  of  his  superior ; 
"^they  yell  at  me!  "  '^  Perhaps  it  is  because  I 
always  raise  my  hat  to  the  boys,"  replied  the 
older  teacher. 

It  is  astonishing  to  note  the  nice  gradations  of 
courtesy  among  college  students.  One  professor 
merely  nods  as  he  passes,  a  second  bows,  perhaps 
coldly,  a  third  bows  and  smiles  unaffectedly,  a 
fourth  touches  his  hat,  a  fifth  raises  his  hat,  and, 
curiously  but  naturally  enough,  each  professor 
gets  paid  in  his  own  coin.  If  an  impulsive  boy 
raises  his  hat  to  his  professor  or  schoolmaster, 
and  gets  in  return  either  no  recognition  at  all, 
or  a  mere  nod  with  no  soul  in  it,  or  a  patronizing 
soulless  smile,  or  even  a  touching  of  the  hat, 
that  boy,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  will  feel 
cheated  „ 

"  Why  do  you  raise  your  hat  to  that  man,  and 
just  touch  it  to  the  minister?  "  asked  one  ragged 
urchin  of  another. 

' '  Because  I  raised  my  hat  to  the  minister 
once,  and  he  only  touched  his,  but  that  other 
man  always  takes  off  his  hat  to  me,"  was  the 
reply.  And  a  good  reply  it  was.  It  is  only  the 
churl  and  the  nouveau  riche  who  cannot  under- 


84  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

stand  the   everlasting  reciprocity  of    courtesy. 

What  is  that  gentle,  yet  compelling  and  irre- 
sistible force  that  raises  the  caps,  even  ragged 
ones,  and  brings  out  pleasant  smiles  and  grace- 
ful bows  ?  That  force  is  not  arbitrary  power. 
The  schoolmaster  who  covered  the  blackboards 
with  ''Shalt  Nots",  that  in  number  outdid 
Sinai's,  was  compelled  to  spend  most  of  his  time 
correcting  pupils  for  improprieties  not  included 
in  the  schedule. 

A  lean,  anxious-looking  schoolmaster  once 
said  to  me:  "  In  my  school  I  will  have  order,  if 
I  have  to  kill  some  one."  No  doubt;  but  what 
kind  of  order,  and  who  is  to  be  killed  ? 

One  Fourth  of  July  years  ago,  one  of  my 
neighbors,  at  whose  house  I  was  "  celebrating  ", 
tried  to  force  me  to  say  ''Yes,  sir",  instead  of 
"Yes  ".  True  to  the  spirit  of  the  day,  I  declined 
to  do  so.  My  "yes"  meant  no  discourtesy. 
Furthermore,  I  declined  to  plead  guilty  to  the 
charge  of  discourtesy,  and  the  required  altera- 
tion would  most  certainly  have  been  an  admis- 
sion of  guilt  on  my  part.  I  sincerely  hope  that 
I  am  not  vindictive,  but  the  injustice  of  that 
neighbor's  attempt  still  rankles  in  my  mind.     I 


I 


COURTESY   IN   THE   PUBLIC    HIGH    SCHOOL      85 

have  also  stored  up  against  him  another  circum- 
stance certainly  not  of  national  importance, 
namely,  that  he  ate  noisily.  To  this  day  he  is  to 
me  the  man  who  tried  to  force  me  to  say  "  sir" 
and  who  ate  noisily.  Probably  he  had  some 
excellent  qualities.     Quien  sabe  ?     Not  I. 

To  return  to  this  matter  of  recognition  of 
friends,  are  adults  so  very  different  from  the 
young  ?     Said  a  friend  of  mine  not  long  ago : — 

"  Dr.  Blank  recognizes  me  one  day  and  is  very 
pleasant;  the  next  day  he  'cuts  me  dead'.  I 
am  through  with  him. " 

''Ah!  but  I  am  near-sighted;  besides,  I  get  lost 
in  thought",  some  one  will  say.  So  be  it,  but 
you  will  have  to  take  the  consequences.  But 
why  not  use  your  glasses,  and  lose  yourself  in 
thought  o£  others'  feelings  ? 

The  scope  of  courtesy  in  schools  as  in  all  other 
forms  of  society  is  boundless.  It  is  both  spoken 
and  unspoken,  acted  and  unacted.  A  teacher's 
entire  usefulness  is  sometimes  destroyed  by  the 
purely  unconscious  assumption  of  social  superi- 
ority. The  teacher  must  remember  that  ' '  there 
is  but  one  aristocracy  in  this  country, — the  aris- 
tocracy of  service."     How  utterly  petty,  then, 


86  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

in  the  public  school,  whose  very  watch  word  is 
equality,  to  assume  a  social  superiority  that  is. 
often  entirely  imaginary !  True  social  superior- 
ity is  invariably  marked  by  the  absence  of 
assumption.  The  "  thoroughbred  "  is  recognized 
even  by  the  Bowery  boy. 

The  form  and  spirit  of  addressing  pupils  is  of 
vast  importance.  "  Young  rascal,"  "  Now  then^ 
young  man,"  ''Say,  boy,"  and  such  uncoutn 
salutations  must  be  dropped.  Personally,  I  ob- 
ject to  calling  high  school  girls  by  their  first 
names  or  pet  names.  The  title  ''  Miss  "  should 
be  prefixed  to  the  girl's  last  name.  Some  may 
say  that  ' '  Miss  ' '  makes  girls  old  before  their 
time.  It  may  make  them  grow  several  inches 
on  the  first  few  applications,  but  it  does  not  add 
to  their  age.  Society  accords  the  title  of  "  Miss  " 
to  girls  of  high  school  age,  and  school  is  merely 
a  part  of  society.  Over- familiarity  quickly  de- 
generates into  unmixed  vulgarity. 

I  once  saw,  with  feelings  of  disgust,  be  it  ad- 
mitted, a  well-known  teacher  lay  not  violent  but 
directing  hands  on  a  young  lady's  shoulders  to 
guide  here  to  her  place  among  others  on  the  plat- 
form.    ''Hands  off!"  was  my  thought.     Yet 


COURTESY  IN   THE   PUBLIC    HIGH    SCHOOL      87 

thousands  of  teachers  have  not  yet  learned  that 
the  pupil's  person  is  as  sacred  as  the  teacher's. 
In  "  the  brave  days  of  old  ",1  know,  the  mas- 
ter spent  much  time  in  the  delectable  occupation 
of  flogging  fellow-beings  into  submission  and 
possibly  into  love  of  learning.  Yes,  but  how  is 
it  that  high  schools  know  corporal  punishment 
no  more  ?  And  how  is  it  that  they  were  never 
so  successful  before  as  they  are  to-day  ? 

High  school  boys  should  be  called  "  Mister  ". 
Why  ?  Because  they  are  entitled  to  the  applica- 
tion, just  as  the  girls  are  properly  called  "  Miss  ". 
To  call  a  boy  of  high  school  age  "  John  "  or 
"  Johnnie  "  or  "  Smith  "  may  be  tolerated  on  ac- 
count of  the  teacher's  tone  and  manner,  but  if 
the  tone  and  manner  are  bad,  such  forms  of  ad- 
dress may  be  singularly  offensive.  If  boys  are 
not  of  "  Mister  "  size  at  first,  they  soon  grow  to 
such  proportions.  Some  boys  may  laugh  at  the 
title,  but  they  soon  accept  it  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  enjoy  it.  It  is,  like  "  Miss  ",  a 
badge  of  equality.  But,  whither  in  a  discussion 
like  this  ?  Is  not  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter, 

"  Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets"? 


A  TEUE  PHILOSOPHY 

The  practical  results  of  most  philosophies 
have  been  seen  not  so  much  in  the  addition  of 
new  and  useful  facts  to  the  sum  of  human 
knowledge,  as  in  a  sharpening  of  the  wits,  a  de- 
veloping of  intellectual  muscle,  an  increasing  of 
mental  power.  And  these  results  are  in  no 
sense  small  or  contemptible.  Still,  just  as  many 
of  us  have  longed  for  a  universal  language,  so, 
there  has  always  been  in  the  human  heart  a 
lurking  belief  in  "  Islands  of  the  Blessed  "  far 
beyond  the  tangible  straits  of  Gibraltar;  in  a 
genuine  "  pot  of  gold  "  at  the  end  of  the  philo- 
sophical rainbow;  in  magnificent  castles,  and 
real  ones,  too,  in  the  Spain  of  philosophy.  Emi- 
nent historians  of  philosophy,  have,  to  be  sure, 
outhned  the  doctrines  of  the  ever- appearing  yet 
ever-disappearing  schools,  until,  as  one  exam- 
ines the  multitudinous  half-truths  of  the  rolling 
years,  he  feels  like  one  who  looks  with  curious 
interest  into  the  tube  of  a  kaleidoscope,  admires 
the  beautiful  and  ever-changing  designs,  but  in 

(88) 


A  TRUE    PHILOSOPHY  89 

his  ''  heart  of  hearts  "  knows  that  the  elements 
of  each  gay  picture  are  but  bits  of  broken  glass. 
As  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Troy  was  flashed  from 
mountain  to  mountain  by  fire  after  fire  that 
leaped  to  life  at  the  signal  of  each  preceding 
blaze,  so,  on  the  mountain  peaks  of  time  in  that 
rare  atmosphere,  beloved  of  philosophers,  one 
brilliant  philosophy  after  another  has  flashed  the 
glorious  message  that  man  is  free  to  think.  And 
yet,  almost  all  philosophers,  before  kindling  the 
light  of  their  own  signals,  issue  most  grave  and 
serious  proclamations  to  the  effect  that,  however 
much  of  the  former  signal-lights  may  have  been 
true,  a  large  part  of  all  of  them  was  false. 
Critics  show  us  how  one  school  was  developed 
from  another,  point  out  the  well- wrought  chain 
of  evolution  with  hardly  a  missing  link,  and 
even  show  what  schools  the  future  may  produce. 
In  the  meantime,  we  mortals  are  still  looking 
for  that  '^  philosopher's  stone"  to  transmute 
the  base  metal  of  our  daily  lives  into  the  gold  of 
a  well-rounded,  rational,  happy  life.  For,  be  it 
known,  all  normal  men  are  Eosicrucians,  and 
those  are  indeed  degenerate  in  some  corner  of 
whose  hearts  there  is  not  to  be  found  abiding 


90  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

faith  in  the  good  intention  of  the  Creator,  and 
firm  belief  in  the  "  increasing  purpose  "  of  the 
ages.  Stevenson  says  that  all  boys  have  been 
at  some  time  treasure- hunters, — and  the  man 
that  is  not  a  boy  at  heart  is  pitiably  old. 

In  harmony,  then,  vs^ith  this  constant  search 
for  truth,  I  wish  to  examine  the  philosophy  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus,  partly  because 
every  teacher  ought  to  be  familiar  with  the 
"  Thoughts  "  of  this  philosopher,  and  partly  be- 
cause it  would  seem  that,  in  spite  of  the  numer- 
ous works  written  upon  this  great  man,  and  his 
singularly  impressive  and  valuable  "  Thoughts  ", 
the  peculiar  value  of  his  philosophy  is  not  ap- 
preciated at  the  present  time.  For  many  years 
Alaska  was  considered  a  barren  region,  chiefly 
valuable  as  a  most  instructive  lesson  in  the  folly 
of  making  purchases  of  foreign  territory,  yet  in 
process  of  time  it  appears  that  this  Alaska,  so 
far  from  being  barren,  is  a  rich,  magnificent  ter- 
ritory, teeming  with  untold  wealth,  and  that  the 
purchase  of  it  was  a  piece  of  great,  good  luck, 
or  the  practical  demonstration  of  gigantic  finan- 
cial ability.  There  are  philosophical  Alaskas 
needing  only  careful  ''  prospecting  "  to  develop 


A   TRUE    PHILOSOPHY  91 

gold-bearing  veins  of  thought,  and  even  "  Klon- 
dykes  "  of  wisdom. 

Life,  by  some  regarded  as  simple,  is  really  a 
most  complex  thing.  And  yet  complex  as  the 
details  may  be,  there  is  a  chance  for  simplifica- 
tion, classification,  and  arrangement.  For  ex- 
ample, one  is  helped  in  the  consideration  of  his 
duties  by  the  classification  often  given  by  phi- 
losophers : — 

1.  Our  duties  to  God. 

2.  Our  duties  to  other  human  beings. 

3.  Our  duties  to  ourselves. 

A  classification  like  this  is  in  no  sense  com 
plete  in  the  sense  of  being  final,  for  the  connec- 
tion of  the  three  classes  of  duties  appears  at  a 
glance.  The  formal  reference,  however,  of  a 
specific  case  to  such  a  classification  undoubtedly 
has  its  value. 

It  is  my  purpose,  then,  to  give  the  answers  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  to  some  of  the  great 
problems  of  life.  In  the  words  of  William  R. 
Thayer,  "  To  every  one  of  us,  even  the  dullest 
or  shallowest,  come  joy  and  grief,  sin  and  fail- 
ure and  death,  each  with  his  challenge,  '  What 
do  I  mean  to  you  ? '  " 


92  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

What  does  the  great  emperor  emphasize  as  of 
vital  importance  in  education  ? 

1.  "  Good  morals  and  the  government  of  one's 
temper." 

2.  "  Modesty  and  a  manly  character." 

3.  "  Piety,  beneficence,  and  abstinence  not 
only  from  evil  deeds,  but  even  from  evil 
thoughts.     Simplicity  in  the  way  of  living. ' ' 

A.  '^  Liberal  expenditures  upon  education." 

6.  ''  Endurance  of  labor,  the  habit  of  want- 
ing little,  manual  labor,  minding  one's  own 
affairs,  hatred  of  slander. ' ' 

6.  "  Not  to  busy  oneself  about  trifling  things, 
freedom  from  superstition,  freedom  of  speech." 

Y.  ''Dislike  of  showing  off,  readiness  to  be 
reconciled." 

8.  "  Freedom  of  will,  undeviating  steadiness 
of  purpose,  to  be  always  the  same,  in  sharp 
pains,  on  the  occasion  of  the  loss  of  a  child,  and 
in  long  illness." 

9.  ''  A  benevolent  disposition,  a  life  conform- 
able to  nature,  the  toleration  of  ignorant  per- 
sons." 

10.  "  To  refrain  from  fault  finding.  Not 
frequently,   nor    without   necessity,    to   say   to 


A   TRUE    PHILOSOPHY  93 

anyone,  or  to  write  in  a  letter,  that  I  have  no 
leisure ;  nor  continually  to  excuse  the  neglect  of 
duties  required  by  our  relation  to  those  with 
whom  we  live,  by  alleging  urgent  occupations." 
11.  "  The  love  of  kindred,  of  justice,  of  truth. " 
Were  it  possible  to  guide  our  lives  by  maxims, 
and  if  we  desired  to  find  proverbial  truth  for  all 
occasions,  Marcus  Antoninus  is  able  to  furnish  a 
wise  saying  for  every  day  of  the  year,  and  to 
express  his  wisdom  in  terms  of  unexcelled  felic- 
ity.    For  example: — 

1.  "  One  thing  here  is  worth  a  great  deal,  to 
pass  thy  life  in  truth  and  justice,  with  a  benevo- 
lent disposition  even  to  liars  and  unjust  men, " 

2.  "  When  thou  wishest  to  delight  thyself, 
think  of  the  virtues  of  those  who  live  with  thee ; 
for  instance,  the  activity  of  one,  and  the  modesty 
of  another,  and  the  liberality  of  a  third,  and 
some  other  good  quality  of  a  fourth." 

3.  "  Every  man  is  worth  just  so  much  as  the 
things  are  worth  about  which  he  busies  himself. " 

4.  ''It  is  royal  to  do  good  and  to  be  abused  " 
(quoted  from  Antrathenes). 

5.  ''To  have  contemplated  human  life  for 
forty  years  is  the  same  as  to  have  contemplated 


94  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

it  for  ten  thousand  years.     For  what  more  wilt 
thou  see  ?  " 

6.  "  Because  thou  hast  despaired  of  becoming 
a  dialectician  and  skilled  in  the  knowledge  of 
nature,  do  not  for  this  reason  renounce  the  hope 
of  being  both  free  and  modest  and  social  and 
obedient  to  God." 

7.  "  The  perfection  of  moral  character  con- 
sists in  this,  in  passing  every  day  as  the  last, 
and  in  being  neither  violently  excited  nor  torpid 
nor  playing  the  hypocrite. ' ' 

8.  "  There  is  nothing  good  for  man  which 
does  not  make  him  just,  temperate,  manly, 
free." 

9.  "  Everything  exists  for  some  end.  For 
what  purpose,  then,  art  thou  ?  " 

10.  ''  Do  not  in  life  be  so  busy  as  to  have  no 
leisure. ' ' 

11.  "  He  who  fears  death  fears  either  the  loss 
of  sensation  or  a  different  kind  of  sensation. 
But  if  thou  shalt  have  no  sensation,  neither  wilt 
thou  feel  any  harm;  and  if  thou  shalt  acquire 
another  kind  of  sensation,  thou  wilt  be  a  differ- 
ent kind  of  living  being,  and  thou  wilt  not  cease 
to  live." 


A   TRUE    PHILOSOPHY  95 

12.  ''  Men  exist  for  the  sake  of  one  another. 
Teach  them,  then,  or  bear  with  them." 

13.  ''  If  any  man  has  done  wrong,  the  harm 
is  his  own." 

14.  "  He  who  follows  reason  in  all  things  is 
both  tranquil  and  active  at  the  same  time,  and 
also  cheerful  and  collected." 

15.  "  For  in  the  same  degree  in  which  a  man's 
mind  is  nearer  to  freedom  from  all  passion,  in 
the  same  degree,  also,  is  it  nearer  to  strength; 
and  as  the  sense  of  pain  is  a  characteristic  of 
weakness,  so  also  is  anger.  For  he  who  yields 
to  pain,  and  he  who  yields  to  anger,  both  are 
wounded  and  both  submit." 

16.  "  The  pride  that  is  proud  of  its  want  of 
pride  is  the  most  intolerable  of  all." 

Such  are  only  a  few  of  the  nuggets  to  be 
found  in  this  great  mine.  As  a  guide  of  life, 
the  "  Thoughts  "  of  Marcus  Antoninus  are  in 
some  respects  unsurpassed.  In  sorrow  or  in  joy, 
in  prosperity  or  adversity,  in  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  life,  you  will  find  the  good  and  great  emperor 
a  genuine  friend  and  true  comforter.  If  every 
teacher  in  our  country  could  be  persuaded  to 
study,  ponder,  and  practise  the  principles  laid 


96  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

down  in  the  ''Thoughts",  it  is  my  belief  that 
very  great  good  would  result. 

[The  quotations  in  this  article  are  from  George 
Long's  version  of  the  ''Thoughts".] 


REPLY  TO  PRESIDENT  SCHURMAN 

The  president  of  Cornell  University,  in  his 
lecture  on  ''  State  Education  ",  delivered  before 
the  Twentieth  Century  Club  of  Boston  some 
months  ago,  won  the  unenviable  distinction  of 
making  the  most  unreasonable  and  most  un- 
called-for attack  on  the  teachers  of  our  public 
schools  ever  allowed  to  pass  so  long  unchallenged 
and  unanswered.  Incidentally,  the  schools  also 
share  in  the  unfavorable  criticism  of  the  univers- 
ity president,  but  the  teachers  appear  to  be  the 
chief  objects  of  his  condemnation.  The  corner- 
stone of  President  Schurman's  critical  structure 
depends  on  a  purely  metaphysical  distinction  be- 
tween morality  or  righteousness  and    religion. 

If  righteousness  is  not  the  most  important  part 
of  any  enlightened  religion,  why  did  the  founder 
of  Christianity  lay  so  much  stress  on  it  ? 

Does  any  sane  person  deny  that  morality  or 
righteousness  is  taught  in  our  public  schools  ? 
On  the  contrary,  does  not  every  competent  in- 
vestigator know  that  these  schools  are  one  of 

(97) 


98  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

the  most  important  means  of  promoting  right 
thinking,  right  speaking,  right  acting,  right 
living  ? 

Are  the  proper  reading  of  the  Bible  and  the 
singing  of  hymns  of  no  value  ?  Are  the  ex- 
hortations of  masters  and  assistants  without 
effect  ?  Are  the  denunciations  of  wrong-doing, 
followed  by  wise  and  just  penalties,  useless  ? 
Do  not  the  regulations  about  promptness,  regu- 
larity, neatness,  industry,  honesty,  truth-telling, 
perseverance,  temperance,  self-control,  and  all 
the  other  virtues,  regulations,  I  say,  carried  out 
in  a  liberal,  but  painstaking,  way  by  all  good 
teachers,  entitle  those  teachers  to  more  respect- 
ful consideration  than  they  received  at  the  hands 
of  a  university  president  who  evidently  knows 
very  little  about  either  the  public  school  problem 
or  its  solution  ? 

In  reply  to  the  singular  allegations  of  Cor- 
nell's president,  let  me  avail  myself  of  the  New 
Englander's  privilege  of  answering  a  question 
by  asking  another,  namely,  "  What  is  righteous- 
ness. ' '  I  turn  to  the  authority  which  President 
Schurman  himself  would  undoubtedly  invoke, 
namely,  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  I  read  (James 


PRESIDENT  SCHURMAN  ON  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS      99 

T. :  26,  27) :  "  If  any  man  among  you  seem  to  be 
religious  and  bridleth  not  his  tongue,  but  deceiv- 
eth  his  own  heart,  this  man's  rehgion  is  vain. 
Pure  rehgion  and  un defiled  before  God  and  the 
rather  is  this,  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows, 
and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world." 
Then  morahty  or  righteousness  is  clearly  the 
most  important  element  of  religion. 

And  now  who  of  you  knows  of  schools  pro- 
viding 'intellectual  training  "  without  moral 
training  ?  Personally,  I  have  yet  to  find  such 
a  school.  And  who  has  'Hhe  necessary  apti- 
tudes or  credentials  ' '  for  this  moral  training,  if 
teachers  have  not  ?  If  there  is  a  more  worthy, 
a  more  competent,  a  harder  worked,  a  worse 
paid  body  of  workers  for  moral  improvement 
than  the  great  body  of  American  teachers,  I 
know  not  where  to  find  it. 

In  asserting  that  the  great  body  of  American 
teachers  have  neither  the  aptitudes  nor  the  cre- 
dentials for  giving  moral  instruction,  Mr.  Schur- 
man  not  only  insults  the  teachers — possibly 
they  may  in  time  get  used  to  the  criticisms  of 
men  and  of  women  who  could  not  do  the  work 
of  these  teachers  anywhere  nearly  so  well  as  the 


100  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

teachers  themselves  are  doing  it — but  he  also 
insults  the  great  army  of  those  who  have  gone 
from  these  very  public  schools  into  positions  of 
national  and  of  international  importance. 

But  notice,  if  you  please,  Mr.  Schurman's  in- 
consistency: "  I  am  firmly  persuaded  that  chil- 
dren are  trained  in  goodness  not  by  any  study 
of  ethical  text-books,  but  by  contact  v^ith  good 
men  and  v^omen,  and  also  through  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  sentiments  of  duty  and  righteousness 
hA  means  of  direct  religious  teaching. ' '  Is  the 
Bible  an  ethical  text-book  ?  If  it  is  not,  is  it 
not  the  basis  of  such  text-books  ?  Have  not 
text-books  on  moral  science  a  similar  basis,  and 
have  they  not  a  value  in  education  ?  But  this 
''contact  with  good  men  and  women",  where 
are  the  millions  of  American  children  to  find  it,  if 
they  do  not  find  it  in  the  schools  ?  Can  it  pos- 
sibly be  that  our  critic  means  that  righteousness 
is  the  result,  not  so  much  of  moral  text-  books,, 
or  direct  moral  instruction,  but  of  personal  con- 
tact with  good  men  and  women,  and  that  tho 
American  teachers  are  not  good  enough  to  pro- 
duce desirable  results  in  the  way  of  righteous- 
ness ? 


PRESIDENT  SCHURMAN  ON  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS   101 

But  Mr.  Schurman  says  that  the  American 
teachers  have  neither  ''  aptitudes  nor  creden- 
tials "  for  this  spiritual  vocation.  Where  is  his 
evidence  ?  The  school,  the  church,  the  state, 
society,  the  home,  each  in  its  own  way,  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  moral  training  of  youth,  man- 
hood, and  age.  If  faults  are  found  in  this  train- 
ing, why  let  four  of  the  five  responsible  agencies 
go  scot-free,  and  lay  all  the  blame  on  one  ? 
"Why  omit  all  mention  of  the  stupendous  and 
unsurpassed  results  obtained  by  the  public 
schools  in  this  very  department  of  moral  train- 
ing ?  It  may  be  true  that  the  difficulties  of  the 
American  teacher's  problems  are  greater  than 
those  of  any  other  teacher  in  the  world ;  it  may 
be  true  that  his  materials  are  more  varied,  more 
complex,  than  those  of  any  other  country ;  it  may 
be  true  that  his  critics  are  more  exacting  and  more 
theoretical  than  those  of  any  other  nation;  be 
it  so.  It  is  likewise  true  that  no  other  teachers 
in  any  other  country,  or  at  any  other  age,  are 
meeting  and  have  met  so  well  the  needs  of  their 
day  and  generation.  The  measure  of  the  Amer- 
ican teacher's  difficulties  is  also  the  measure  of 
his  success. 


102  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

And  what  about  those  vague  credentials, 
which  our  university  critic  deems  essential  to 
the  complete  identification  of  a  teacher  of  right- 
eousness ?  I  desire  to  say  in  all  seriousness  and 
with  all  possible  earnestness  that  it  is  my  delib- 
erate conviction  that  in  accordance  with  the  doc- 
trines of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  the  great  body  of  American 
teachers  hold  their  credentials  for  doing  good 
directly  from  God  Almighty. 

Mr.  Schurman  says  in  effect:  Take  from  the 
teacher  his  highest  function,  degrade  him  from 
his  lofty  estate;  strip  him  of  his  proudest  in- 
signia; break  his  sword  of  righteousness  t 
Transfer  his  most  important  duties  to  the 
clergy  of  the  community,  and  make  the  free 
public  school  subordinate  to  the  private,  sec- 
tarian church.  Was  ever  a  more  unreason- 
able proposition  advanced  by  an  intelligent  man  ? 
The  plan  amounts  to  the  one  stated,  disguise  it 
as  you  may.  And  even  the  author  of  the  sug- 
gestion has  his  doubts  about  it.  He  says :  ''  The 
question  will  be  asked  how,  in  practice,  such  a 
scheme  may  be  worked  out.  I  shall  not  elabo- 
rate a  plan  now,  and  indeed,  I  cannot  imagine 


PRESIDENT  SCHURMAN  ON  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS   103 

that  I  have  even  thought  of  all  its  essential  fea- 
tures." I  share  Mr.  Schurman's  uncertainties 
about  his  plan,  v^hich,  as  I  have  stated,  involves 
the  transfer  of  all  religious  and  moral  training 
from  the  teacher  to  the  clergy  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. 

And  now,  let  me  call  attention  to  another 
error  of  President  Schurman's,  namely,  the  one 
involved  in  his  statement  that  no  state  or  city 
has  made  any  provisions  in  its  statutes  for  moral 
training  in  the  public  schools.  But  you  all 
know,  if  the  president  of  Cornell  does  not,  that 
the  statutes  of  Massachusetts  say  most  clearly 
that  teachers  shall  at  all  times,  "  exert  their 
best  endeavors  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  chil- 
dren and  youth  committed  to  their  care  and  in- 
struction the  principles  of  piety  and  justice,  and 
a  sacred  regard  to  truth ,  love  of  their  country, 
humanity,  and  universal  benevolence;  sobriety, 
industry,  and  frugality;  chastity,  moderation, 
and  temperance ;  and  those  other  virtues  which 
are  the  ornament  of  human  society,  and  the 
ba^sis  upon  which  a  republican  constitution  is 
founded."  Rhode  Island  has  a  statute.  So  has 
Washington.     And    the    reading    of    the  Bible 


104  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

appears  to  be  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception 
throughout  the  United  States. 

It  has  been  my  great  privilege  lately  to  estab- 
lish a  shrine  of  national  and  of  local  patriotism 
in  my  school.  I  have  placed  in  a  very  promi- 
nent position  in  one  of  the  broad  corridors  a 
case,  and  in  that  case  I  have  put  on  the  right  in 
the  place  of  highest  honor  the  beautiful  national 
flag  presented  to  our  battalion  by  the  School 
Committee  of  Boston.  And  on  the  left  I  am 
collecting  from  the  various  victorious  captains 
who  won  them,  the  prize  banners  awarded  to 
our  companies  in  competition  with  our  brethren 
of  the  other  district  high  schools  of  Boston. 
And,  furthermore,  I  am  placing  in  this  case  such 
trophies  as  our  athletes  win  in  the  various  fields 
of  athletic  activity.  I  am  sure  that  good  results 
have  come  already  from  the  silent,  but  power- 
fully eloquent,  lesson  of  that  trophy-case. 

In  the  heart  of  the  American  teacher  there  is 
a  shrine  of  righteousness.  Material  equipment, 
intellectual  activity,  physical  health,  a  hundred 
aims  may  share  the  teacher's  devotion  in  a 
greater  or  a  less  degree,  but  more  than  any 
other  of  these  separately,  more  even  than  many 


PRESIDENT  SCHURMAN  ON  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS   105 

of  them  together,  if  lacking  "  the  one  thing 
needful",  the  true  teacher  has  placed  as  the 
object  of  his  devotion  in  his  secret  shrine  of 
righteousness  the  development  of  his  pupils  in 
nobility  of  character. 


A  NEW  FIELD  FOR  PRIVATE  BENEFI- 
CENCE 

Our  universities,  colleges,  academies,  and  pub- 
lic libraries,  not  to  mention  charitable  organiza- 
tions, are  constantly  receiving  so  many  tangible 
tokens  of  confidence  and  appreciation,  that  one 
cannot  help  feeling  surprised  at  the  comparative 
neglect  of  our  public  schools  by  generous  bene- 
factors. An  impression  is  prevalent  that,  when 
the  taxpayers,  through  their  duly  constituted 
authorities,  have  provided  school  buildings, 
teachers,  janitors,  supplies,  and  elementary  ap- 
paratus, the  public  schools  are  well  equipped, 
and,  consequently,  may  be  dismissed  from  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  money  to  give  away, 
and  who  are  more  than  willing  to  give  it. 

Here  and  there,  it  is  true,  there  are  marked 
exceptions  to  this  rule,  as,  for  example,  in  the 
case  of  many  academies,  which  in  accordance 
with  their  founders'  wishes,  have  been  made 
free  to  the  pupils  of  certain  towns,  and  which, 
in  consequence  of   such  liberal  provisions,  have 

(106) 


A  NEW  FIELD  FOR  PRIVATE  BENEFICENCE     107 

been  fully  enjoyed  by  the  public.  It  is  also  true 
that  the  alumni,  the  various  classes,  the  teach- 
ers and  friends  of  some  public  schools  are  con- 
stantly making  efforts  to  beautify  buildings  used 
for  such  purposes  with  works  of  art.  In  some 
instances  the  women's  clubs  have  helped  mater- 
ially in  this  important  work,  and  on  somewhat 
rare  occasions  even  individual  benefactors  have 
given  hberal  gifts. 

In  spite,  however,  of  all  these  commendable 
instances  of  public  spirit,  applied  where  it  will 
do  the  most  good,  the  public  schools,  as  a  rule, 
afford  a  field  of  unexcelled  promise  for  the  wise 
application  of  private  beneficence.  For,  first 
and  perhaps  foremost,  no  school,  public  or 
private,  ought  to  be  considered  in  any  sense 
adequate  or  suitable  unless  it  possesses  a  gen- 
erous playground.  Although  the  best  medical 
and  educational  authorities  are  unanimously  in 
favor  of  this  doctrine,  it  appears  to  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  the  general  public.  The  objection 
is  often  raised,  when  this  subject  is  brought  up 
for  discussion,  that  there  is  no  land  for  play- 
grounds in  the  places  where  buildings  are  most 
needed,  or  that,  if  there  is  any  land,  the  price, 
especially  to  the  city,  is  prohibitive. 


108  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

In  reply  to  the  first  part  of  the  objection,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  city  of  Paris,  in  order  to 
secure  proper  approaches  to  some  of  its  pubUc 
buildings,  found  no  insuperable  difficulty  in  the 
fact  that  numerous  structures  had  to  be  torn 
down  to  secure  the  desired  results,  and  that 
other  great  cities  have  had  a  similar  experience. 

The  notorious  fact  stated  in  connection  with 
the  second  part  of  the  objection,  namely,  that 
the  price  of  land  is  frequently  higher  to  the  city 
than  it  is  to  an  individual,  is  disgraceful  to  the 
persons  who  grow  rich  dishonestly  and  meanly 
at  the  expense  of  the  geueral  public,  and  who 
are,  consequently,  one  of  the  chief  hindrances  to 
the  health  and  well-being  of  the  children.  For 
many  years  to  come  it  seems  likely  that  private 
beneficence  must  afford  the  means  for  public 
school  play-grounds. 

That  every  public  school  should  have  a  well- 
equipped  gymnasium  with  suitable  facilities  for 
bathing  would  seem  to  be  a  self-evident  fact, 
and  yet  how  numerous  are  the  buildings  without 
any  equipment  of  the  kind!  The  attempt  to 
educate  children  under  conditions  unfavorable 
to  health  is  one  of  the  grimmest  tragedies  in  the 


A  NEW  FIELD  FOR  PRIVATE  BENEFICENCE     109 

economy  of  modern  civilization.  The  men  and 
women  who  by  their  generosity  will  make  the 
surroundings  of  the  pubhc  school  children  con- 
ducive to  health  instead  of  health-destroying 
will  deserve  well  not  only  of  this  generation  but 
of  all  the  generations  to  come. 

In  connection  with  this  topic  of  health  it  may 
be  just  as  well  to  state  that  comparatively  few 
buildings  in  the  United  States,  in  point  of 
health,  ventilating,  water  supply  and  sewerage, 
are  up  to  the  standard  demanded  by  the  laws  of 
health.  It  becomes  evident,  accordingly,  that  in 
respect  to  this  one  matter  of  sanitary  science  in 
schools,  enlightened  private  beneficence  has  a 
magnificent  field  for  usefulness.  Before  dismis- 
sing this  part  of  the  subject  it  is  entirely  proper 
to  state  that  the  average  cheap  luncheon  offered 
public  school  pupils  is  extremely  unpalatable 
and  unhygienic.  It  is  often  called  ^*  hygienic  ", 
but  its  name  suggests  that  principle  of  nomen- 
clature observable  in  the  case  of  cold  "  hot 
waffles  ". 

The  adornment  of  public  school  buildings 
with  photographs,  engravings  and  casts  has  not 
yet  received  proper  attention.     The  educational 


110  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

power  of  such  adornment  in  several  ways  is  be- 
yond question.  It  refines  the  taste,  kindles  the 
imagination,  broadens  the  mind,  stimulates  curi- 
osity to  see  the  world,  and  quickens  loyalty  and 
public  spirit.  But  if  this  adornment  might  con- 
sist of  paintings  in  addition  to  photographs, 
statues  of  marble  in  addition  to  casts,  and  origi- 
nal mural  decorations  by  our  best  painters,  a 
new  world  would  be  brought  to  the  pupils'  view. 
Evidently  school  decoration  affords  an  extra- 
ordinary opportunity  for  all  those  who  wish 
American  children  to  come  under  the  influence 
of  art. 

It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  many  public 
schools,  even  though  equipped  with  sanitary 
surroundings  and  suitable  buildings,  are  deplor- 
ably lacking  in  apparatus  essential  to  proper  in- 
struction in  the  various  subjects.  Astronomy 
without  a  telescope,  biology  without  micro- 
scopes, history,  literature,  art  and  the  sciences 
without  a  stereopticon,  are  flagrant  examples  of 
the  difficulties  with  which  both  pupils  and  teach- 
ers frequently  struggle.  It  is  a  curious  and  ex- 
tremely interesting  fact,  that,  in  some  respects, 
some  of  the  old-fashioned  academies  were  better 


A  NEW  FIELD  FOR  PRIVATE  BENEFICENCE     111 

equipped  with  apparatus  than  are  many  modern 
high  schools  estabHshed  in  buildings  of  great 
magnificence.  The  prevalent  idea  that  the 
school  is  the  school  building,  must  give  place 
to  a  much  broader  conception  of  the  word 
school.  This  new  conception  must  include 
the  pupils,  the  teachers,  the  school  officers, 
the  parents,  guardians,  and  friends,  especially 
the  alumni,  the  building,  the  apparatus,  the 
adornment,  the  playground,  the  school  activities, 
whether  in  school  hours  or  out  of  them — in  a 
word,  the  school  and  its  relations.  From  this 
newer  point  of  view  a  thousand  opportunities 
for  private  beneficence  become  apparent. 

Although  public  libraries  are  becoming  more 
and  more  numerous,  and  although  their  connec- 
tion with  the  public  schools  is  growing  closer  and 
closer,  still  every  public  school  needs  a  library 
of  its  own.  Reference  books  and  collateral 
reading  for  every  subject  taught  in  the  public 
schools,  together  with  some  standard  works  in 
the  principal  departments  of  human  thought, 
are  extremely  useful  to  the  young  students. 
Reading  rooms  provided  with  the  best  maga- 
zines, periodicals  and  journals  are  well  calculated 


112  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

to  add  human  interest  to  the  somewhat  monoto- 
nous routine  of  some  schools. 

Manual  training,  including  wood- working, 
turning,  carving,  iron  work,  pyrography,  book- 
binding, basketry  and  many  other  subjects,  af- 
fords not  only  an  admirable  method  of  training 
the  hand,  the  eye,  the  brain,  and  the  mind,  but 
also  a  most  desirable  relief  from  the  wearing 
effects  of  constant  book  work.  Idleness  badly 
directed  is  the  cause  of  almost  all  school  mis- 
chief. Manual  training  offers  an  excellent  solu- 
tion of  the  problems  of  idleness.  In  every 
school,  therefore,  at  least  one  large  room  should 
be  devoted  to  the  various  kinds  of  manual  train- 
ing. If  the  taxpayers  say  ''  no  ",  the  philan- 
thropist should  say  "  yes  ". 

The  claims  of  domestic  arts  and  sciences  may 
be  presented  in  a  similar  manner,  and  these 
claims  may  be  substantiated  on  the  ground  that 
the  self-respecting  ability  to  earn  one's  own  liv- 
ing is,  and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  must 
be,  not  only  a  most  honorable  and  creditable 
thing  in  itself,  but  also  the  real  foundation  of  all 
progress  in  the  higher  arts  and  sciences. 

Attention  might  also  be  called  to  the  beauti- 


A  NEW  FIELD  FOR  PRIVATE  BENEFICENCE     113 

fying  of  school  grounds,  to  school  excursions, 
school  gardens,  and  to  other  important  phases 
of  the  new  education,  but  the  limits  of  this  arti- 
cle permit  reference  to  only  one  more  of  the 
numerous  opportunities  for  philanthropy.  Al- 
though grave  objections  have  been  raised  by 
some  educational  writers  to  the  plan  of  giving 
prizes,  scholarships,  or  other  pecuniary  rewards, 
the  fact  remains  that  the  system  of  giving  such 
rewards  has  long  prevailed  in  the  best  schools 
and  colleges  in  the  country.  And,  when  one  con- 
siders that  some  of  the  ambitious  boys  and  girls 
on  the  thorny  path  of  a  self-earned  collegiate 
education  have  to  maintain  not  only  themselves 
but  other  members  of  their  families,  whatever 
anyone  may  think  of  the  prize  system,  surely 
he  will  not  object  to  the  more  general  establish- 
ing of  scholarship  funds  for  the  benefit  of  the 
most  deserving.  But  enough  has  been  said  ta 
prove  that  the  public  schools  furnish  one  of  the 
best  fields  for  the  active  benevolence  of  public- 
spirited  citizens. 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  AN  ALUMNI 
ASSOCIATION 

Ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  Quincy  High 
School  Alumni : 

Your  president  has  asked  me  to  talk  about 
eight  minutes  on  ' '  The  Advantages  of  an  Alum- 
ni Association  ".  "On  such  a  subject,"  in  the 
words  of  Cicero,  "  it  is  more  difficult  to  get  to  the 
end  of  a  speech  than  it  is  to  find  a  beginning. 
So  that  not  so  much  abundance  of  material  as  a 
proper  hmit  has  to  be  sought. ' ' 

When  to  the  surprise  and  gratification  of 
the  citizens  of  Eochester,  Madame  Janauschek, 
the  great  actress,  began  her  starring  tour  at  that 
place,  one  of  the  pleased  citizens  said  to  her: 
^'  Madame  Janauschek,  will  you  kindly  inform  us 
why  you  saw  fit  to  honor  Eochester  so  highly  by 
beginning  your  tour  here  ?  "  "  Mein  Gott, ' '  re- 
plied the  great  actress,  whose  English  was  not 
absolutely  perfect,  ' '  I  must  begin  some vare. ' '  It 
is  just  so  in  making  a  speech,  one  must  begin 
somewhere.     And  so  plunging  into  the  midst  of 

(114) 


ADVANTAGES  OF  AN  ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION    115 

the  subject,  I  would  say  that  alumni  associations 
are  valuable  in  the  first  place,  because  they  sus- 
tain and  renew  old  friendships.  When  all  has 
been  said  and  done,  are  not  these  old  school 
friendships  among  the  richest  of  our  posses- 
sions ?  In  nearly  the  words  of  Frederick  W . 
Loring,  Harvard,  class  of  '70: 

"  Shall  we  forget  each  other's  truth, 
When  May  yields  to  December  ? 
Dear  friend,  pray  God  preserve  our  youth. 
And  grant  that  we  may  e'er  remember. 

In  years  to  come,  we'll  form  new  ties, 

Yet  leave  the  old  unbroken. 
When  to  our  children's  lips  arise 

The  words  that  we  before  have  spoken. 

Nor  need  we  ever  fear  to  see 

Death  come,  this  knot  to  sever ; 
A  High  School  friendship !     It  shall  be 
For  life,  dear  comrade,  and  forever. ' ' 
It  seems   to   me  that   all  of  us  might  make 
this  world  a  pleasanter  place  to  live  in,  if  we 
should  try  to  do  our  best  in  a  social  way.     Most 
of  us  in  this  respect  "  have  done  those  things 
that  we  ought  not  to  have  done,  and  have  left 
undone  the  things  that  we  ought  to  have  done, ' 


116  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

even  if  our  daily  work  keeps  us  constantly  em- 
ployed. Still,  the  busiest  people  are  always  the 
ones  that  can  do  the  most  in  every  department 
of  activity. 

Secondly,  our  association  forms  a  connecting 
link  between  the  older  graduates  and  the  more 
recent  ones.  Such  pleasant  associations  with 
the  constantly  renewed  classes  of  graduates  i^ 
profitable  in  the  extreme.  It  keeps  us  all  young. 
Have  five,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty,  or  more,  years- 
slipped  by,  since  we  were  graduated  ?  It  can- 
not be:  these  blooming  young  faces  refute  the 
slanders  of  time.  We  can  say  with  Holmes: 
''  Hang  the  almanac's  cheat  and  the  catalogue's 
spite ! 

Old  time  is  a  liar!  we're  twenty  to-night. "* 

The  fountain  of  perpetual  youth  is  found  in 
just  such  associations  as  ours.  To  be  with  the 
young  is  to  be  young.  If  I  might  venture  to 
add  a  beatitude  to  that  sacred  list  I  would  say : 
Blessed  are  the  young  in  hearty  for  theirs  is  the 
Kingdom  of  earth  and  of  heaven. 

Third.  We  teachers  need  the  encouragement 
that  you,  and  you  alone,  can  give  us.  The  teach- 
er's life  is  not  a  bed  of  roses  without  thorns 


ADVANTAGES  OF  AN  ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION    117 

We  are  not ' '  carried  to  the  skies  on  flowery  beds 
of  ease. ' '  So  wearing  is  the  profession  of  teach- 
ers, that  one  of  our  poets  has  said : 

''  Uneasy  lie  the  heads  of  all  that  rule, 

His  most  of  all  whose  kingdom  is  a  school. " 

And  so  I  say,  we  need  the  encouragement 
of  our  alumni.  We  like  to  feel  that  we  had 
something  to  do  with  your  success  in  life ;  that, 
while  we  may  not  hope  to  acquire  riches  in  our 
profession,  we  may  yet  be  as  useful,  and  so,  as 
respectable,  as  the  members  of  any  other  calling. 
We  like  to  feel  that  whatever  dreams,  ambitious 
dreams,  we  may  have  had,  that  we  are  sure  of 
realities  like  your  sympathy  and  your  warm  re- 
gard— realities,  I  may  say,  vastly  more  real  and 
more  desirable,  than  countless  aims  supposed  by 
many  to  be  more  practical.  Practical — the  very 
word  has  been  so  abused  that  its  mention  sends 
a  shudder  down  one's  spinal  column,  as  we  think 
of  that  tremendous  but  practical  man,  Mr. 
Gradgrind,  in  Dickens's^'  Hard  Times",  "  In  this 
life, ' '  he  says  ' '  we  want  nothing  but  Facts,  Sir, 
nothing  but  Facts, ' '  but  the  Angels  of  Love,  and 
Beauty,  and  Truth,  teach  lessons  far  difl^erent 
from  this. 


118  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Many  years  ago  it  was  my  privilege  to  hear 
the  late  Bishop  Brooks  of  glorious  memory.  I 
was  a  sophomore  at  Harvard  then,  so  that  you 
may  easily  understand,  that  all  this  was  long 
ago.  But  I  remember  the  text  '  Son  of  Man, 
stand  upon  thy  feet. '  And,  oh,  what  a  bracing, 
manly  sermon  it  was.  I  have  thought  of  it  a 
hundred  times,  and  always  with  profit  and  pleas- 
ure alike.  And,  so,  it  seems  to  me  that  you 
graduates  ought  to  come  back  to  our  school  from 
time  to  time  to  catch  again  the  inspiration  of 
former  days.  If  you  were  proud  of  your  school 
in  the  past,  you  have  still  greater  reason  to  be 
proud  of  it  now.  It  stands  to-day  among  the 
best  schools  in  New  England,  and  it  is  a  real 
honor  to  be  a  graduate.  Its  success  has  attracted 
very  wide  attention,  and  though  it  has  increased 
170  per  cent  in  five  years,  it  is  still  going  for- 
ward "  conquering  and  to  conquer." 

And  last,  for  I  must  not  exceed  my  time, 
our  association  is  valuable  from  the  fact  that  we 
members  have  duties  as  well  as  privileges.  It 
is  our  duty  to  stand  as  a  unit  for  the  interests 
of  higher  education  in  our  grand  old  historical 
city ;  to  stand  for  the  best  and  most  liberal  meth- 


ADVANTAGES  OF  AN  ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION   119 

ods  of  disseminating  the  truth,  with  enthusiasm^ 
without  favoritism,  without  prejudice. 

At  this  point,  Mr.  President,  it  was  my  in- 
tention to  conclude  my  remarks,  but  to-day  I  at- 
tended the  Norfolk  County  Teachers'  Convention, 
where  I  heard  sentiments  expressed  that  I  can- 
not permit  to  pass  by  without  an  emphatic  pro- 
test. My  friend,  the  Secretary  of  the  Connect- 
icut State  Board  of  Education,  in  his  address  on 
'High  School  Kef orm,'  advocated  the  elimina- 
tion of  Latin  and  Greek  from  the  High  School 
course.  Mr.  President,  knowing  the  high  dis- 
ciplinary, linguistic,  and  literary  value  of  those 
languages,  I  offer  an  energetic  protest  against 
any  such  inconoclastic  and  anti-civilizing 
proposition. 

At  some  future  time,  it  would  give  me  pleas- 
ure to  discuss  at  length  the  classical  question 
before  this  association ;  to-night  I  will  say  only 
this :  Is  it  not  a  strange  coincidence  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  America's  literary  men  of 
the  first  class  have  been  classically  educated,  and 
that  a  college  education  has  so  often  proved  the 
stepping-stone  to  national  greatness  ? 

And    then    Mr.    Bailey,    the    much  admired 


120  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Scituate  humorist,  made  some  grave  strictures 
on  the  lack  of  enthusiasm  in  High  Schools.  He 
may  have  been  unfortunate  in  his  experience. 
Certainly,  so,  far  as  our  Quincy  High  School  is 
concerned,  the  charge  is  as  false  as  it  w^ell  could 
be.  Is  it  lack  of  enthusiasm  that  crowds  our 
halls  v^ith  425  pupils,  that  supports  our  Golden 
Eod,  our  Debating  society,  and  every  subject 
taught  in  the  school  ?  Is  it  lack  of  enthusiasm 
that  sends  the  gallant  boys  of  our  foot-ball  team 
through  the  rush-lines  of  their  opponents  ?  Is 
it  lack  of  enthusiasm  that  supports  our  prize 
contests, and  our  school  orchestra?  That  sends 
our  boys  and  girls  to  Harvard,  to  Technology,  to 
Eadcliffe,  to  Boston  University,  and  to  the  Nor- 
mal schools  ?  If  all  this  is  lack  of  enthusiasm, 
let  us  have  some  more  '  lack '  just  like  it,  for  the 
highest  enthusiasm  itself  could  do  no  better.  I 
thank  you  for  your  very  kind  attention. 


SOME  INSTANCES   OF  ANCIENT 
PATEIOTISM 

Patriotism  is  an  essential  element  in  the  true 
greatness  of  a  nation.  Turn  to  Greek  history. 
The  Trojan  war  and  the  prodigies  of  valor  per- 
formed in  that  contest  offer  examples  of  noble 
patriotism.  Hector  and  Achilles,  Diomedes  and 
^neas,  Menelaus,  and  the  two  Ajaxes,  not  to 
mention  a  host  of  less  famous  vanguard  fighters, 
played  their  parts  manfully  in  that  great  drama. 
The  mind  reverts  to  Marathon.  On  the  one  side, 
ten  thousand  Greeks ;  on  the  other,  the  count- 
less hosts  of  Persia.  But  the  patriotism  of 
Athens  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  brute 
strength  of  the  invader,  so  that  the  defeat  of 
the  Persians  was  overwhelming.  Leonidas  and 
his  three  hundred  made  at  Thermopylae  an 
everlasting  name.  The  simple  grandeur  of  the 
inscription  on  the  monument  erected  in  their 
honor  tells  its  own  story:  "  Stranger,  tell  the 
Lacedaemonians  that  we  lie  here  in  obedience  to 
their  orders."     Artemisium,  Salamis,  Platae  and 

(121) 


122  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Mycale,  each  has  its  splendid  story.  Eoman 
history  also  offers  striking  instances  of  patri- 
otism. Horatius  Codes  who  "  kept  the  bridge  " 
so  well ;  Lucius  Cincinnatus,  who  left  the  plough, 
and  seized  the  sword  to  the  consternation  of  the 
^quians ;  Manlius,  who  thrust  the  Gauls  from 
the  Capitoline  Hill;  that  other  Manlius,  who 
killed  the  gigantic  Gaul,  and  won  the  surname 
Torquatus ;  the  self-immolation  of  Publius  De- 
cius  Mus,  both  father  and  son ;  Mucins  Scaevola 
who  let  his  right  hand  burn  in  the  fire  of  the 
altar,  to  show  that  a  Eoman 's  soul  was  superior 
to  pain;  Maximus  and  Marcellus — what  list  of 
Roman  greatness  would  be  complete  without 
these  names  and  the  noble  patriotic  deeds  with 
which  they  are  associated  ?  The  annals  of  Rome 
are  bright  with  glorious  memories.  Regulus  by 
his  magnificent  self-sacrifice  added  a  lustre  to 
the  Roman  name.  Caius  Julius  Caesar  never 
hesitated  to  risk  his  life  for  his  country.  Cicero 
spoke  with  all  the  eloquence  of  patriotism.  Not 
only^were  the  great  generals  animated  by  patri- 
otic impulses,  but  their  hardy  soldiers  were  sim- 
ilarly inspired. 

War  heroes  are  likely  to  receive  more  than 


INSTANCES    OF    ANCIENT   PATRIOTISM         12S 

their  share  of  praise,  for  mihtary  success  usu- 
ally meets  with  most  signal  instances  of  recog- 
nition. And  yet  the  patriot  in  civic  life  contri- 
butes his  full  share  to  the  glory  and  stability  of 
the  nation.  The  orations  of  Demosthenes  and 
of  Cicero  are  beacon-lights  of  patriotism.  The 
literature  of  Greece  and  of  Rome  are  lustrous 
with  the  fire  of  patriotism.  "  The  best  omen  is 
my  country's  cause,"  says  Homer;  "  Dulce  et 
decorum  est  pro  patria  mori^^^  says  Horace; 
Virgil  cries :  ' '  Pulchrumque  mori  succurrit  in 
armis,^^  and  Cicero  sounds  the  trumpet-call  in 
the  words : 

"  Sit  denique  inscriptum  in  fronfe  unius  cujuS" 
que,  quid  de  republica  sentiat.^^ 

"  Let  each  one's  sentiments  about  the  com- 
mon welfare  be  inscribed  upon  his  forehead,"  a 
sentiment  which  has  stood  the  test  of  nearly 
twenty  centuries,  and  which  bids  fair  to  last 
forever.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  almost 
countless  instances  of  noble  deeds  and  noble 
sentiments  among  the  ancients,  yet  few  as  the 
instances  cited  may  be,  they  are  sufficient  in 
number  and  quality  to  show  the  true  nature  of 
patriotism  in  the  olden  times. 


SCHOOL  PLAYGROUNDS 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  obtain  my  pre- 
paratory education  at  the  excellent  old  Roxbury 
Latin  school.  Now  no  one  can  justly  accuse  the 
friends  of  that  time-honored  institution  of  ex- 
travagance in  their  ideas  about  the  building  and 
its  equipments.  In  fact,  the  building  has  been 
regarded  for  years  as  a  model  by  all  those  who 
have  an  abhorrence  of  "  Persian  frippery  "  and 
other  signs  of  un-Spartan  luxury.  In  spite  of 
the  severe  plainness  of  that  old  wooden  building, 
the  school  has  always  rejoiced  in  an  ample  play- 
ground. No  institution  is  more  deserving  of  a 
fine,  modern  building  and  a  playground,  too, 
but  if  both  cannot  be  obtained,  it  strikes  me 
that  great  wisdom  has  been  displayed  in  insisting 
on  the  playground. 

If  we  start  with  the  premise  that  the  health 
of  the  pupils  is  of  vastly  more  consequence  to 
all  concerned  than  any  possible  acquisitions  at 
the  cost  of  their  health,  and  if  we,  further,  ad- 
mit that  the  school  playground  is  one  of  the 

(124) 


SCHOOL    PLAYGROUNDS  125 

most  powerful  aids  in  maintaining  the  health  of 
the  pupils,  how  can  we  avoid  the  conclusion 
that,  wherever  such  action  is  possible,  more 
money  should  be  used  in  buying  land,  and  less 
in  somewhat  luxurious  equipments  ? 

Well-kept,  untrodden  school  lawns  are  beauti- 
ful and  appropriate,  but  girls  and  boys  aglow 
with  health  are  much  more  attractive.  As  a 
detached  house  with  suitable  grounds  will  always 
be  superior  to  the  most  luxurious  apartment 
house  without  grounds,  so,  even  a  severely  plain, 
though  not  necessarily  ugly  school  building,  well 
equipped  with  a  playground,  will  always  be 
superior  to  the  most  magnificent  school  build- 
ing deprived  of  its  proper  playground.  And  so 
it  appears  to  me  the  part  of  wisdom  to  consider 
health  before  luxury,  rational  development  be- 
fore the  one-sided  reactionary  attempts  at  devel- 
opment that  arise  from  ignoring  the  laws  of 
health,  and,  finally,  to  make  our  school  build- 
ings not  merely  school-houses,  but  school  homes 
with  grounds  that  can  be  used  by  the  pupils. 


NEW  YOEK  AND  ITS  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 
TEACHERS'  RETIREMENT  FUND 

Section  1092  of  the  "  Provisions  of  the  Re- 
vised Charter  ' '  of  New  York  reads  as  follows : 

''  The  Board  of  Education  is  hereby  given  the 
general  care  and  management  of  the  public 
school  teachers'  retirement  fund  created  for  the 
former  city  of  New  York  by  chapter  two  hun- 
dred and  ninety-six  of  the  laws  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  ninety-four,  and  of  the  public 
school  teachers'  retirement  fund  created  for  the 
former  city  of  Brooklyn  by  chapter  six  hundred 
and  fifty-six  of  the  laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and 
ninety-five,  and  said  funds  are  hereby  made  parts 
of  the  retirement  fund  of  the  Board  of  Education 
of  the  city  of  New  York  created  by  this  act.  The 
comptroller  of  the  city  of  New  York  shall  hold 
and  invest  all  money  belonging  to  said  fund,  and 
by  the  direction  of  said  Board  of  Education  shall 
pay  out  the  same.  The  Board  of  Education 
shall  have  charge  of  and  administer  said  retire- 
ment fund  as  it  shall  deem  most  beneficial  to 

(126) 


I 


NEW  YORK  teachers'  RETIREMENT  FUND    127 

said  fund,  and  shall  make  payments  from  said 
fund  of  annuities  granted  in  pursuance  of  this 
act.  Said  board  shall,  from  time  to  time,  estab- 
lish such  rules  and  regulations  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  said  fund  as  it  may  deem  best,  which 
rules  and  regulations  shall  preserve  all  rights 
inhering  to  the  teachers  of  the  city  of  New 
York  and  the  city  of  Brooklyn  as  constituted 
prior  to  the  passage  of  this  act.  And  the  comp- 
troller of  the  city  of  New  York  shall  report  in 
detail  to  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  city  of 
New  York,  annually,  in  the  month  of  January, 
the  condition  of  said  fund,  and  the  items  of  the 
receipts  and  disbursements  on  account  of  the 
same.  The  said  retirement  fund  shall  consist  of 
the  following,  with  the  interest  and  income 
thereof:  (1)  All  money,  pay,  compensation  or 
salary,  or  any  part  thereof,  forfeited,  deducted, 
reserved  or  withheld  from  any  teacher  or  teach- 
ers in  the  public  schools  of  the  city  of  New 
York  for  any  cause  in  pursuance  of  rules  estab- 
lished or  to  be  established  by  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation. The  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion shall  certify  monthly  to  the  comptroller  the 
amounts  so  forfeited,  deducted,  reserved  or  with- 


128  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

held  from  the  salaries  of  teachers  during  the 
preceding  month.  (2)  All  moneys  received  from 
donations,  legacies,  gifts,  bequests  or  otherwise 
for  and  on  account  of  said  fund.  (3)  Five  per 
centum  annually  of  all  excise  moneys  or  license 
fees  belonging  to  the  city  of  New  York  and  de- 
rived or  received  by  any  commissioner  of  excise 
or  public  officer,  from  the  granting  of  licenses 
or  permission  to  sell  strong  or  spirituous  liquors, 
ale,  wine  or  beer  in  the  city  of  New  York,  under 
the  provisions  of  any  law  of  this  State  authoriz- 
ing the  granting  of  any  such  licenses  or  permis- 
sion. The  comptroller  of  the  city  of  New  York 
shall  hold  such  moneys,  together  with  any  other 
moneys  belonging  to  said  fund,  and  by  direction 
of  the  said  Board  of  Education  shall  have  charge 
of  and  administer  the  same  as  hereinbefore  in 
this  section  provided.  (4)  All  such  other  meth- 
ods of  increment  as  may  be  duly  and  legally 
devised  for  the  increase  of  said  fund.  On  and 
after  the  passage  of  this  act  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation shall,  by  amending  its  by-laws  relating  to 
the  excuse  of  absence  of  teachers  with  pay,  so 
provide  that  the  aggregate  of  the  several  sums 
deducted  or  forfeited  on  account  of  absence  from 


NEW  YORK  teachers'  ^lETIREMENT  FUND    12& 

duty  shall  be  fully  adequate  to  meet  the  de- 
mands made  upon  the  public  school  teachers^ 
retirement  fund  for  the  payment  of  annuities  as 
herein  provided.  On  the  recommendation  of 
the  city  superintendent,  said  Board  of  Education 
shall  have  power,  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  all  its 
members,  to  retire  any  member  of  the  teaching 
or  supervising  staff,  including  the  members  of 
the  Board  of  Examiners,  who  is  mentally  or 
physically  incapacitated  for  the  performance  of 
duty,  and  has  been  engaged  in  the  work  of 
teaching  or  school  supervision  for  a  period  aggre- 
gating thirty  years,  twenty  of  which  have  been 
in  the  public  schools  of  the  city  of  New  York. 
And  the  Board  of  Education  may  retire  from 
active  service  any  member  of  the  said  teaching 
or  supervising  staff  who  shall  have  attained  the 
age  of  sixty-five  years  and  shall  have  been  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  teaching  or  school  super- 
vision for  a  period  aggregating  thirty  years, 
twenty  of  which  shall  have  been  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  city  of  New  York.  The  said 
Board  of  Education  shall  also  have  power  by  a 
two-thirds  vote  of  all  its  members,  and  after  a. 
recommendation  to  that  effect  shall  have  been 


130  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  j 

made  by  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  normal 
college  stating  that  the  teacher  is  mentally  or 
physically  incapacitated  for  the  performance  of 
duty,  to  retire  the  female  superintendent  and 
any  female  tutor  of  the  normal  college  and  the 
female  superintendent  and  any  female  critic 
teacher  of  the  training  department  of  the  nor- 
mal college  or  training  department  or  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  during  a  period  aggregating  thirty 
years.  The  said  board  of  education,  upon  the 
recommendation  of  the  trustees  of  the  normal 
college,  may  also,  in  its  discretion,  retire  any 
such  teacher  or  teachers  upon  her  or  their  own 
application  after  the  like  period  of  service.  All 
money,  pay,  compensation  or  salary  or  any  part 
thereof  forfeited,  deducted  or  withheld  from  any 
female  superintendent  or  superintendents  or  any 
female  teacher  or  teachers  of  the  normal  college 
and  training  department  for  and  on  account  of 
absence  from  duty  for  any  cause  shall  be  turned 
into  the  teachers'  retirement  fund  by  the  board 
of  trustees  of  said  college.  Any  teacher,  prin- 
cipal or  supervising  official,  including  members 
of  the  Board  of  Examiners,  so  retired  shall 
thereafter  be  entitled  to  receive  as  annuity  one- 


NEW  YORK  teachers'  RETIREMENT  FUND    131 

half  the  annual  salary  paid  to  said  teacher,  prin- 
cipal or  supervising  official  at  the  date  of  said 
retirement,  not  to  exceed,  however,  in  the  case 
of  a  teacher,  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars 
per  annum,  in  the  case  of  a  principal  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  per  annum,  and  in  the  case  of  a 
supervising  official  two  thousand  dollars  per 
annum.  And  in  no  case  shall  such  annuity  for 
any  teacher,  already  retired  or  hereafter  to  be 
retired,  be  less  than  six  hundred  dollars.  The 
said  board  is  hereby  given  the  power  to  use  both 
the  principal  and  the  income  of  said  fund." 

It  appears  from  this  section  (1)  that  the  retire- 
ment fund  receives  all  deductions  for  absence ; 
(2)  that  five  per  centum  of  the  excise  moneys 
go  to  the  fund;  (3)  that  annuities  may  go  as 
high  as  $2,000  for  a  supervising  officer,  and  as 
high  as  $1,500  for  a  principal;  (4)  that  no  an- 
nuity shall  be  less  than  $600. 

Comparisons  are  said  to  be  odious;  but,  be 
that  as  it  may,  they  are  often  extremely  in- 
structive. The  city  of  Boston,  it  is  true,  pays 
for  the  services  of  the  city  treasurer  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Boston  Teachers'  Eetirement  Fund. 
Furthermore,  the  Legislature  has  given  the  trus- 


132  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

tees  of  that  fund  power  to  purchase  bonds  of 
the  city  of  Boston  at  par.  Even  with  these  two 
excellent  concessions  it  has  not  yet  been  possible 
to  pay  annuitants  more  than  $168  per  annum. 
One  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-four  Bos- 
ton teachers  and  supervising  officers  are  assessed 
$18  per  annum  in  order  to  make  even  the  an- 
nuity of  $168  possible.  The  Boston  fund  re- 
ceives no  additions  from  deductions  from  teach- 
ers' salaries  on  account  of  absence.  BostoiL 
teachers  under  the  present  regulations  are  now 
allowed  to  attend  the  funerals  of  relatives  with- 
out loss  of  pay.  The  city  of  Boston  sets  apart 
no  portion  of  any  receipts  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  Boston  Teachers'  Ketirement  Fund.  Is 
it  any  wonder  that  such  comments  as  the  follow- 
ing from  the  Journal  of  Education  are  becom- 
ing common : 

'^  New  York  City  maintains  her  pace  as  the 
educational  leader.  Her  salaries  are  the  highest 
in  the  world.  They  are  secured  by  statute  and 
charter.  They  (New  York  City)  have  the  best 
pension  scheme  for  teachers." 


A  PROFESSOR  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

As  my  life  work  was  destined  to  be  carried  on 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  I  was  very- 
careful  to  get  as  much  of  my  education  as  pos- 
sible in  Germany.  For,  you  know,  or,  at  least, 
ought  to  know,  that  Germany  is  the  country 
where  any  man  possessing  the  proper  qualifica- 
tions, has  the  facilities  for  spending  the  best 
years  of  his  life  in  the  serious  and  undisturbed 
contemplation  of  a  frog's  leg.  No  doubt,  a  man 
might  do  something  similar  in  other  countries, 
were  it  not  for  the  somewhat  laboriously  ascer- 
tained fact  that  the  German  frog's  leg  has  quali- 
ties not  yet  observed  in  the  legs  of  less  highly 
evolved  frogs.  In  fact,  it  would  seem  that  with 
an  inadequate  knowledge  of  the  frog-leg  nature, 
one  cannot  hope  to  understand  the  child  nature. 
On  the  completion  of  my  course  in  Germany,  with 
great  credit,  too,  if  you  will  pardon  an  exhibi- 
tion of  pardonable  pride,  I  returned  to  the  land 
of  my  birth,  fully  equipped  for  the  work  of 
child  study.     Owing  to  the  prejudice  and  stupid- 

(133) 


134:  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

ity  of  the  authorities  my  promotion  to  a  full 
professorship  of  child  study  was  not  so  rapid  as 
I  had  good  reason  to  suppose  it  would  be.  As  I 
think  of  the  slowness  of  my  progress,  I  am 
more  and  more  convinced  that  the  university 
authorities  deliberately  and  wilfully  disregarded 
my  own  wishes  in  the  matter.  Their  lack  of 
taste  and  judgment  merely  made  more  hideously 
prominent  the  already  noticeable  deficiencies  in 
their  education.  But,  then,  poor  fellows!  they 
had  not  enjoyed  such  advantages  as  had  fallen 
to  my  lot,  and  could  not  be  expected  to  excel  in 
matters  of  taste.  Some  of  these  educational 
moguls,  if  you  will  believe  it,  went  so  far  as  to  in- 
timate that  there  are  things  that  can  be  learned 
without  the  slightest  regard  to  the  German 
frog's  leg !  The  poet  Lowell  evidently  had  refer- 
ence to  just  such  persons  typified  under  a  New 
England  name,  when  he  wrote ; — 
^' John  P. 

Robinson,  he 

Sez  they  didn't  know  everything 

Down  in  Judee." 
But  the  world  moves  and  American  universi- 
ties move  with  it.     After  twenty-five  years  of 


A    PROFESSOR   OF   CHILD    STUDY  135 

continuous  and  faithful  service,  after  the  pubh- 
cation  of  many  monographs  on  subjects  of  the 
most  vital  importance  to  students  of  the  child — 
were  it  not  for  my  characteristic  modesty,  I 
would  willingly  insert  here  a  complete  list  of  my 
educational  writings;  I  really  cannot  refrain 
from  mentioning  my  widely  read  theses  entitled : 

1.  '^  The  Evolution  of  '  Old  Barp  ',  or  Why 
Children  Are  Afraid  of  The  Dark. ' ' 

2.  "  Why  Large  Teeth  Frighten  Children  And 
The  Moral  Obligation  Upon  Persons  Possessing 
Such  Teeth  Of  Changing  them  for  Smaller  False 
Ones."  (Commended  by  Doctor  Thorberg  of 
Berlin  as  unangreifhar  or  ''  unassailable  ".) 

3.  "  Should  Over-Talkative  Children  Be  Muz- 
zled, And  Are  Infant  Prodigies  In  Any  Case 
Whatever  To  be  Allowed  To  Perform  Before 
Company?"     (Also  commended  by  Thorberg.) 

But  I  will  not  give  a  complete  list  of  the  in- 
tellectual ^'good  things  "  with  which  I  have 
made  the  tables  of  editors  groan,  and  will  merely 
remark  in  resuming  the  shghtly  tangled  thread 
of  my  discourse,  that,  as  I  was  just  on  the  point 
of  saying,  I  was  made  full  professor  of  child 
study. 


136  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  j 

Persons  that  have  not  enjoyed  advantages  Uke 
mine,  can  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  difficul- 
ties surrounding  a  full  professor  of  child  study. 
It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  the  children 
themselves  are  the  chief  hindrance  to  the  proper 
pursuit  of  a  subject  confessedly  dedicated  to 
their  own  interests.  Time  and  again  I  have 
known  children  to  refuse  absolutely  to  come  into 
my  laboratory.  In  some  cases  there  have  been 
not  only  refusals  but  singularly  grotesque  grim- 
aces, motions  that  in  older  persons  might  seem, 
positively  insulting,  and  language  that,  had  its 
full  import  been  grasped  by  the  childish  minds, 
might  have  been  fairly  regarded  as  vulgar.  The 
lack  of  specimens  for  the  higher  grades  of 
work  has  always  been  a  menace  to  the  complete 
success  of  child  study.  Indeed,  I  have  known 
young  boys  to  walk  miles  for  the  purpose  of 
playing  ball,  when  by  merely  stepping  across 
the  street  to  my  laboratory,  they  might  have 
inhaled  hundreds  of  different  odors. 

Startled  and  grieved  by  the  morbid  reluctance 
of  parents  and  children  to  contribute  to  the  in- 
terests of  science,  I  resolved  that  were  I  ever 
blessed  with  a  child,  he  should  be  brought  up  in 


A   PROFESSOR    OF    CHILD   STUDY  137 

the  true,  scientific,  and  happy  way.  I  may  say 
that  my  promotion  to  a  full  professorship  made 
it  possible  for  me  to  think  of  marriage,  and  that 
after  four  or  five  temporary  disappointments  I 
succeeded  in  winning  the  hand  of  Miss  Minerva 
Blaustrumpf ,  a  most  exemplary  woman  of  strict- 
ly Teutonic  origin.  The  birth  of  my  first  and 
only  child  was  to  me  an  occasion  of  the  hearti- 
est congratulation.  How  fortunate  young  Thor- 
berg  was!  You  see,  I  named  him  for  that 
learned,  discriminating,  world-famous  admirer 
of  my  thesis.  While  almost  all  other  children 
must  inevitably  grow  in  the  most  haphazard 
way,  my  son  had  every  opportunity  of  securing 
a  rigidly  scientific  education.  For  example,  if 
Thorberg  thought  he  ought  to  be  spinning  a  top 
at  the  time  of  life  and  the  season  of  the  year 
when  he  ought  to  be  playing  marbles,  it  was  my 
sweet  duty,  and  his  precious  privilege,  to  see 
that  the  proper  game  was  substituted  for  the 
improper  one.  This  illustration  will  go  far  to- 
ward showing  that  I  am  in  no  sense  a  gloomy 
or  morose  man.  The  sports  and  games  of  chil- 
dren, if  pursued  in  the  right  order  (see  my 
paper  entitled,  "  Why   the   Double-Runner    or 


138  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Eipper  must  have  existed  before  the  Single- 
Sled''),  and  if  the  emotions  caused  by  such 
games  be  noted  and  recorded,  furnish  a  most 
valuable  method  of  detecting  any  lurking  faults 
in  the  elementary  education  of  the  child. 

In  spite  of  my  deep  interest  and  even  delight 
in  Thorberg,  he  early  manifested  a  species  of  ap- 
parent dislike  for  me  amounting  almost  to  re- 
pulsion, although,  of  course,  it  is  not  at  all 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  such  was  really  the 
case.  In  fact,  my  approach  even  in  the  most 
stealthy  and  sly  manner  was  almost  always 
marked  by  an  accession  of  violence  in  the  cries 
and  abnormal  screams  of  my  unscientific  child. 
Even  my  physical  measurements  of  Thorberg 
called  forth  not  only  almost  demoniacal  howls 
(noted  for  the  first  time  in  my  text-book  on 
''  Infants'  Abnormal  Animal  Cries  as  Indicative 
of  Descent  from  the  Howling  Monkey  "),  but 
even  an  abortive  effort  at  doubling  up  of  the 
fists,  and  shaking  them  in  a  most  threatening 
manner.  I  was  at  a  loss  to  understand  these 
actions  of  the  boy,  for  my  teeth  are  not  above 
the  average  in  size,  and  hair  is  not  superabund- 
ant upon  my  countenance ;  my  face  has  none  of 


A  PROFESSOR    OF    CHILD   STUDY  139 

these  deformities  that  might  inspire  fear  or  re- 
pulsion of  any  kind.  In  fact,  as  one  of  my 
young  lady  friends  once  told  me,  my  face  is 
strictly  average  and  normal.  Hence  it  seemed 
to  me  that  a  child  who  had  no  text-book  reason 
for  his  actions  was  certain  to  be  something  of  a 
trial  to  a  really  scientific  father.  To  avoid  all 
complications,  and  to  secure  a  place  of  absolute 
quiet  removed  from  the  seemingly  constant 
howls,  shrieks,  and  yells  of  my  son,  at  consider- 
able expense  I  had  a  small  building  erected  on 
my  grounds,  and  thus  secured  a  place  for  record- 
ing and  tabulating  in  peace  and  quiet,  and  at  my 
leisure,  the  phenomena  manifested  by  my  son. 
This  building  also  afforded  me  a  safe  retreat  for 
sleep  and  study.  I  was  thus  enabled  to  pursue 
my  child  study  with  renewed  zest  and  vigor, 
whereas  almost  any  other  arrangement  would 
have  resulted  inevitably  in  nervous  prostration. 
And  I  may  state  here,  that,  in  my  opinion,  un- 
less a  child  turns  out  to  be  a  genuine  text-book 
child,  methodical,  regular,  systematic,  rational, 
normal,  such  a  child  as,  I  am  sure,  in  our  pres- 
ent advanced  state  of  knowledge  on  this  subject, 
I  might  have  been,  nay  in  all  probability,  was, 


140  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

— I  have  discovered  that  the  more  immediate 
care  of  it  should  be  intrusted  to  a  woman,  since 
she,  though  confessedly  less  able  to  note,  weigh, 
and  compare  the  phenomena,  has  been  known  in 
not  a  few  instances  to  manifest  a  certain  capac- 
ity for  counteracting  abnormal,  irregular,  and 
unauthoritative  actions  to  which  no  text-book 
gives  the  slightest  countenance. 

As  soon  as  Thorberg  became  manageable  to 
the  slightest  degree,  I  began  a  most  systematic 
course  of  experimentation.  I  am  proud  to  state 
that  at  the  age  of  seven  he  had  enjoyed  more 
sensations  of  touch,  taste,  sight,  hearing,  and 
smell,  than  would  be  likely  to  fall  to  the  lot  of 
thousands  of  ordinary  persons,  even  if  their 
lives  were  prolonged  to  the  most  extreme  old 
age.  In  fact,  my  son  at  the  age  of  seven  had 
been  through  the  physical  sensations  so  thor- 
oughly, and  had  so  carefully  reviewed  his  work, 
that  the  rest  of  his  life,  to  be  at  all  enjoyable, 
had  to  be  devoted  to  the  phenomena  of  more 
purely  intellectual  knowing  and  willing.  And 
the  result  was,  in  truth,  exactly  what  I  had 
planned,  for  I  had  carefully  prepared  a  tabular 
view  of  Thorberg's  life,  and  fully  intended  that 


A   PROFESSOR    OF    CHILD   STUDY  141 

he  should  Kve  up  to  it.  My  plan  was  this:  His 
life  should  be  devoted  to  an  exemphfication  of 
A.  Perception ;  B.  Conception ;  0.  Ratiocination ; 
D.  The  Synthetic  Unity  of  Apperception.  Par- 
don the  omission  of  the  numerous  sub-headings 
which  anyone  worthy  of  the  name  of  philoso- 
pher can  supply.  My  scheme,  though  seemingly 
complete  from  the  first,  grew  with  the  growth 
of  the  child,  until  I  discovered  that  child  study 
and  adult  study  are  indissolubly  connected.  To 
make  a  complete  outline  study  of  the  child, 
then,  I  evidently  should  be  compelled  to  keep 
Thorberg  in  my  laboratory  during  years,  if  not 
for  his  entire  life.  In  case  of  my  prior  death, 
which  seemed  a  more  or  less  probable  phenome- 
non, the  completion  of  my  study  might  be  left 
as  a  special  privilege  to  him  who  had  been  my 
specimen  for  so  many  years.  As  my  manuscript 
(still  unpublished)  grew  larger  and  larger,  my 
affection  for  Thorberg  as  an  unconscious  bene- 
factor of  generations  yet  to  be,  became  more 
and  more  scientifically  deep.  But  alas  for  the 
hopes  of  man!  Pulvis  et  umbra  sumus — my 
poor  Thorberg  paled  and  sickened  and  died.  No 
one  regretted  his  death  more  than  I  did,  for  we 


142  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  ^ 

were  in  the  very  midst  of  a  most  beautiful  ex 
periment.  And,  furthermore,  the  cause  of  his 
untimely  death  is  entirely  unknown  to  me.  Even 
our  family  physician,  who  was  thoroughly  fa- 
miliar with  the  entire  course  of  Thorberg's  short 
but  beautiful  life,  was  so  puzzled  that  he  did  not 
venture  to  assign  any  cause  of  death  other  than 
that  of  general  debility.  I  cannot  help  recalling 
the  last  words  Thorberg  spoke  to  me:  ''  Father, 
wouldn't  it  have  been  better  to  try  a  little  more 
love  ? ' '  The  poor  boy  must  have  known  that 
love  was  much  farther  along  in  our  syllabus,  and 
that  we  should  have  come  to  it  in  a  compara- 
tively few  years  at  the  most. 


TEACHING  MOEALITY  IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS 

Modern  views  of  morality,  in  my  opinion, 
need  a  great  deal  of  clarifying.  For  example, 
an  ingenious  editor  has  made  a  schedule  of 
stealing  in  the  following  terms : 

Taking  $1,000,000  is  a  case  of  genius. 

Taking  $100,000  is  a  case  of  shortage. 

Taking  $50,000  is  a  case  of  litigation. 

Taking  $25,000  is  a  case  of  insolvency. 

Taking  $10,000  is  a  case  of  irregularity. 

Taking  $5,000  is  a  case  of  defalcation. 

Taking  $1,000  is  a  case  of  embezzlement. 

Taking  $100  is  a  case  of  dishonesty. 

Taking  $50  is  a  case  of  thievery. 

Taking  $25  is  a  case  of  total  depravity. 

Taking  one  ham  is  a  case  of  war  on  society. 

And,  let  me  add,  even  this  remarkable  sched- 
ule must  have  exceptions  like  to  the  sands  of 
the  seashore  for  multitude.  For  if  none  of 
these  acts  get  found  out,  respectability  still 
reigns  supreme,  and  even  if  some  of  them  do 
get  found  out,  only  the  supersensitive  seem  to 

(143) 


144  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  y- 

care.  There  are  otherwise  respectable  people 
who  boast  of  smuggling,  who  cheat  about  their 
taxes,  and  who  consider  it  moral  to  unload  worth- 
less stocks  on  their  confiding  friends.  There 
are  other  more  or  less  respected  persons  who 
can  cheat  their  grocers  and  provision  dealers, 
and  yet  hold  their  heads  high.  In  this  remark-, 
able  diversity  of  opinion  it  is  clearly  the  duty  of 
the  High  Schools  to  teach  constantly,  effectively, 
and  without  fear  or  favor  the  rule  of  right.  It 
is  my  firm  belief  that  the  corner-stone  of  any 
High  School  is  the  moral  spirit  pervading  every 
rule,  regulation,  and  exercise  of  that  school. 

Consider  for  a  moment  how  deep  are  the  foun- 
dations of  some  of  the  commonest  of  our  school 
regulations.  Moral  scientists  tell  us  that  ''  a 
fixed  time  for  an  assembly,  a  meeting  of  a  com  - 
mittee  or  board  of  trust,  or  a  business  interview, 
is  a  virtual  contract  into  which  each  person  con- 
cerned has  entered  with  every  other,  and  the 
strict  rules  that  apply  to  contracts  of  all  kinds 
are  applicable  here.  Failure  in  punctuality  is 
dishonesty."  Similar  remarks  may  be  made 
about  regularity  of  attendance  as  involving  not 
only  one's  own  interests  but  those  of  the  class 


TEACHING  MORALITY   IN   HIGH  SCHOOLS      145 

and  the  school.  The  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
in  spite  of  what  some  say  about  it,  can  certainly 
do  no  harm,  and  properly  conducted  may  do  a 
great  deal  of  good.  The  singing  of  those  grand 
old  hymns  must  certainly  have  strong  moral 
tendencies.  Addresses  whether  given  by  the 
master  or  by  others  often  produce  good  results. 
The  orderly  passing  from  room  to  room,  the  self  • 
control  required  in  a  modern  High  School,  the 
constant  courtesy  to  teachers  both  in  school  and 
out,  are  all  important  elements  in  forming  char- 
acter. The  upright  and  downright  views  of 
teachers  on  all  questions  involving  morality  or 
its  opposite  such  as  stealing,  cheating  of  all 
sorts,  lying,  forgery,  and  similar  acts,  are  a  con- 
stant inducement  to  right  action.  The  estab- 
lishing of  a  school  spirit  that  will  not  tolerate 
such  sins  is  a  work  of  immeasurable  importance. 
The  personal  influence  of  a  teacher  of  high 
character,  pleasing  manners,  excellent  attain- 
ments, and  teaching  power,  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated, just  as  the  evil  influence  of  a  dishonest 
teacher  is  bad  beyond  description.  And  by  a 
dishonest  teacher  I  do  not  mean  one  who  is  nec- 
essarily   consciously    dishonest.     You  have  all 


146  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

known  teachers  who  give  dishonest  and  evasive 
answers,  when  ''  I  do  not  know  "  is  the  only 
true  answer  in  a  particular  case.  You  may 
have  met  teachers  who  despise  their  own  pro- 
fession, but  who  are  perfectly  willing  to  remain 
in  it  and  draw  their  salaries.  By  far  the  most 
important  influence  exercised  by  the  teacher  in 
his  relations  with  his  pupils  is  what  Bishop 
Huntington  has  so  happily  called  "  Unconscious 
Tuition". 

It  is  my  belief  that  all  the  forms  of  physical 
training  employed  in  High  Schools  may  be  made 
instruments  of  moral  training-  Last  year,  as  I 
had  been  informed  that  basket-ball  teaches  self- 
control,  I  was  somewhat  surprised  to  hear  my 
girls  screaming  vociferously  over  their  games, 
but  this  year  I  was  perhaps  equally  surprised  to 
observe  the  quiet  that  characterized  the  game. 
I  was  puzzled  to  account  for  the  complete  change, 
until  my  teacher  of  physical  training  explained 
that  screaming  was  counted  a  "  foul  ",  and  that 
quiet  was  consequently  at  a  high  premium.  The 
subordination  of  self  required  in  really  success- 
ful military  drill  is  a  powerful  instrument  of 
moral  training.     In  this  department  as  well  as 


TEACHING  MORALITY  IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS       147 

in  all  others  I  have  found  it  wise  to  make  regu- 
lations to  this  effect. 

"  On  and  after  such  a  date  no  pupil  whose 
character,  conduct  and  scholarship  are  unsatis- 
factory to  the  Head-Master  shall  hold  office  in 
any  of  the  military,  athletic,  or  social  organiza- 
tions of  the  school.  All  persons  interested  will 
kindly  take  due  notice."  I  believe  that  every 
Head-Master  of  a  High  School  ought  to  have 
€Ourage  enough  to  enact  and  enforce  a  similar 
rule.  Furthermore,  I  am  firmly  persuaded  that 
the  terms  of  service  of  some  masters  would  have 
been  much  more  enjoyable  and  much  more  last- 
ing, if  they  had  shown  more  moral  courage  in 
this  matter.  One  evening  during  my  sopho- 
more year  at  Harvard,  I  went  to  hear  Phillips 
Brooks  preach.  He  took  as  his  text  "  Son  of 
man,  stand  upon  thy  feet  ",  and  then  he  pro- 
ceeded to  give  one  of  those  bracing  discourses 
for  which  he  was  so  much  noted.  "  Son  of 
man,  stand  upon  thy  feet  !  "  That  is  a  good 
text  for  all  Head-Masters.  Did  you  ever  hear 
of  schools  run  either  by  the  subordinate  teach- 
ers or  by  some  one  so-called  subordinate  teacher  ? 
Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  entire  policy  of  a  school 


148  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  ^ 

dictated  by  one  incompetent  trustee  ?  '^  Son  of 
man,  stand  upon  thy  feet !  ' '  The  moral  atmos- 
phere of  the  entire  school  must  be  permeated 
with  the  personahty  of  the  Head-Master.  What 
ever  concerns  the  welfare  of  the  school  is  his 
business.  The  choice  of  officers  of  the  military 
companies,  the  appointment  of  editors  of  the 
school  paper,  the  complete  supervision  of  that 
paper  to  the  extent  of  reading  every  word  of 
copy  and  every  word  of  proof,  the  approval  of 
the  officers  of  the  athletic  organizations,  may 
well  come  under  his  care.  His  presence  on  the 
play-ground  is  a  powerful  agency  for  good,  and 
puts  an  effective  quietus  to  coarseness,  profan- 
ity, loafing  and  kindred  faults.  The  Head-Mas- 
ter's influence  over  his  school  is  in  direct  propor- 
tion to  his  interest  in  his  school.  You  have  got 
to  be  interested  in  your  boys  and  girls,  if  you 
expect  to  influence  them  for  good.  The  law 
says  that  the  teacher  stands  in  loco  parentis 
towards  his  pupils ;  he  also  stands  in  the  place 
of  a  brother,  of  a  friend.  You  have  all  heard 
the  story  of  Professor  Felton's  younger  brother 
"  who  stood  very  high  in  his  class  at  Harvard, 
but  once  forgot  himself  so  far  as  to  use  profane 


TEACHING  MORALITY  IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS       149 

language,  an  offence,  it  may  be  remarked,  of 
relatively  greater  heinousness  then  than  now. 
Young  Felton,  in  consideration  of  being  the  pro- 
fessor's brother,  received  the  mercy  of  private 
instead  of  public  admonition,  and  the  professor 
himself  was  commanded  to  administer  it.  He 
called  the  youth  to  his  room  and  said:  '^  John,  I 
cannot  express  to  you  how  horrified  I  am  that 
my  brother,  in  whose  character  and  scholarship 
I  had  taken  so  much  pride,  should  have  been  re- 
ported to  the  faculty  for  this  vulgar  and  wicked 
offence."  John  said  with  much  contrition: 
^'  I  am  exceedingly  sorry.  It  was  under  cir- 
cumstances of  great  provocation.  I  have  never 
been  guilty  of  such  a  thing  before.  I  never  in 
my  life  have  been  addicted  to  profanity. ' ' 

"  Damnation,  John!  "  interposed  the  profes- 
sor, ''  how  often  have  I  told  you  the  word  is 
prof aneness  and  not  profanity  ?  ' '  And  the 
veracious  Chronicler  adds:  ^' The  admonition 
ended  there."  Of  the  value  of  such  an  admo- 
nition you  may  draw  your  own  conclusion,  al- 
though, in  my  judgment  apart  from  its  one 
somewhat  glaring  error,  it  had  its  merits.  Al- 
though I  fear  that  I  have  already  exceeded  the 


150  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

time  allotted  me,  I  wish  to  state  in  closing  that 
I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  moral  training  of  at 
least  two  comparatively  recent  innovations  in  the 
High  School :  I  refer  to  the  Elective  System  and 
Manual  Training. 


MANUAL   TEAINING 

There  is  an  impression  prevalent  among  the 
uninitiated  that  the  study  of  certain  subjects 
is  almost  invariably  accompanied  by  certain  re- 
sults, and  that,  consequently,  all  pupils  should 
take  so  much  of  this  and  so  much  of  that,  in 
order  to  have  a  liberal  education.  What,  then, 
is  the  inquiring  student  to  say  to  such  answers 
as  these  actually  given  by  various  pupils : 

1.  The  blood  in  the  body  is  taken  by  means  of 
tubs  to  the  heart  and  there  detained. 

2.  A  volcano  is  a  burning  mountain  that  has 
a  creator  and  throws  out  melted  rooks. 

3.  I  came  sore  and  conquered. 

4.  The  night  rat  came  rolling  up  ragged  and 
brown. 

5.  His  brain  was  teething  with  grand  ideas  in 
all  directions. 

6.  If  the  earth  did  not  revolt^  we  should  al- 
ways have  equal  nights  and  days. 

7.  Stored  in  some  trouser  house  of  mighty 
kings. 

(151) 


152  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

8.  The  lungs  are  organs  of  execration, 

9.  The  base  of  a  triangle  is  the  side  we  donH 
talk  about. 

10.  The  apex  of  the  heart  is  placed  downwards 
and  slightly  upwards. 

11.  Eapids  are  pieces  of  water  which  run 
with  great  force  down  the  middle  of  rivers. 

12.  Excommunication  means  that  no  one  is 
to  speak  to  some  one. 

13.  The  north  and  the  south  poles  mean  that 
if  a  ship  comes  near  one  and  looks  for  the  farther 
one  she  can't  see  it. 

14.  Polynesia  is  a  group  of  small  islands  in 
the  Pacific  which  are  under  the  protection  of  the 
British,  otherwise  seem  very  quiet  and  peace- 
loving. 

SELECTIONS   FROM   SCHOOL   EXERCISES 
{From  the  World's  Work) 

"  Apherbility  is  the  state  of  being  an  apher- 
bile." 

"  Afferbility  is  the  state  of  being  insane  on 
one  subject  only." 

"  Serenade,  a  greeness  as  of  grass." 

' '  Reverberation  is  when  it  is  made  again  into 
a  verb." 


MANUAL  TRAINING  153 

"  The  equator  is  a  menagerie  lion  running 
around  between  the  north  and  south  pole." 

"  They  climbed  Vesuvius  to  see  the  creator 
smoking." 

''We  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July  because 
Jesus  bid  us. ' ' 

"  Vengeance.  Def'n,  a  mean  desire  to  pay 
back.  lUus'n,  '  Vengeance  is  mine ;  I  will  repay, 
saith  the  Lord.'  " 

"  Ingenious,  a  stupid  person,  from  in,  not, 
and  genious,  a  smart  person. ' ' 

''  Discretion,  a  difference  of  sex  between  ani- 
mals." 

'"  The  early  Briton  wore  a  skin,  he  tied  it  at 
the  waist.  He  wore  legions  on  his  legs.  He 
had  eyes  of  a  blue  shade  which  plainly  showed 
his  semi-civilization.  He  wore  on  his  feet 
mocassions  or  scandals." 

"  Grand  opera.  The  only  Grand  Opera  know 
is  Wang." 

''  The  Te  Deum  is  a  Grand  opra." 

"  The  British  museum  is  the  principal  build- 
ing in  Paris." 

"  Aristides  was  a  god ;  he  was  the  female  god 
of  Phoenicia." 


164:  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

''  Hannibal  was  an  early  Greek  explorer  who 
wrote  a  book  called  Heroditus." 

"  Virgil  was  a  Vestal  Virgin." 

'^  As  I  roamed  in  the  deep  woods  I  saw  a  herd 
of  greyhounds  hunting  for  prey." 

'^  Julius  Caesar  was  the  mother  of  the  Grac- 
chi." 

Now  some  will  say  that  such  illustrations  are 
of  no  value,  because,  in  the  first  place  they  are 
made  up  to  amuse  people,  and,  second,  even 
if  they  are  true,  they  simply  prove  that  some 
pupils  are  careless.  But,  gentlemen,  such  of 
these  illustrations  as  are  true,  and  none  of 
them  are  impossible,  have  a  deeper  meaning 
than  that.  They  prove  the  excessively  slight 
value  of  little  bits  of  information,  in  no  sense 
assimilated,  carelessly  written,  and,  happily, 
sometimes  promptly  forgotten.  So  much  has 
been  said  about  the  value  of  certain  standard 
subjects  that  it  is  time  to  call  attention  to  their 
lack  of  value  in  certain  circumstances.  If  inter- 
est is  the  mother  of  attention,  and  attention  the 
mother  of  memory,  then  interest  must  be  the 
grandmother  of  memory.  Did  you  ever  hear 
of  a  boy  who  could  do  nothing  with  languages 


MANUAL  TRAINING  165 

and  yet  delighted  in  mathematics  ?  Have  you 
ever  known  boys  whose  uneasiness  made  them  a 
constant  annoyance,  and  whose  heedlessness 
made  them  pretty  nearly  complete  failures  in 
the  studies  of  the  course,  but  who  afterwards 
became  efficient  and  honored  citizens  ?  Have 
you  not  deplored  the  constant  dwindling  away 
of  pupils  year  by  year  in  the  progress  from  class 
to  class  ?  And  yet  boys  and  girls  are  the  great- 
est utilitarians  in  the  world.  They  are  eager  to 
learn  something  that  will  do  them  good.  Such 
is  their  constant  cry. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Head-Masters  of 
the  United  States  President  Pritchett  of  the  In- 
stitute of  Technology  mentioned  four  requisites 
of  efficiency  in  life,  namely : 

Character, 

Intelligence, 

Industry, 

and  Fellowship. 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  let  me  get  at  the 
main  point  of  my  remarks.  In  view  of  my  ex- 
perience with  other  subjects  and  observation  of 
results  obtained,  am  I  not  fully  justified  in  stat- 
ing that  manual  training  properly  taught,  fos- 


156  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

ters  character,  intelligence,  industry,  and  fellow- 
ship, quite  as  much  as  do  the  other  studies  of 
the  curriculum  ?  Manual  Training  is  individu- 
alism systematized.  Poor,  slipshod  work  cannot 
be  concealed.  The  results  are  perfectly  tangible. 
There  is  no  such  being  as  an  unintelligent  yet 
efficient  workman.  The  very  subject  implies 
intelligence  and  initiative.  And  as  for  industry, 
why  it  seems  to  me  as  if  my  manual  training 
room  were  the  busiest  place  in  school.  "  They 
act,"  said  a  man  to  me,  '^  as  if  they  had  a  gov- 
ernment contract."  Furthermore,  isn't  there  a 
good  deal  of  fellowship  in  this  idea  of  rich  and 
poor,  boys  and  girls,  working  away  together, 
and  getting  results  that  may  be  compared  and 
talked  over  ?  And  isn't  it  a  superb  lesson  in 
humanity  for  the  little  petted  darling  of  the 
aristocracy  to  find  out  that  there  are  certainly 
some  things  which  he  cannot  do  half  so  well  as 
the  poor  boy  from  the  section  where  the  rich  call 
only  when  ''  slumming  "  ? 

And  so  I  say  that  Manual  Training  justifies 
its  existence  quite  as  well  as  any  other  subject, 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  it  is  so  popular  at  the 
Brighton  High  that  our  main  difficulty  is  not  to 


MANUAL  TRAINING  157 

get  students  to  take  it,  but  to  find  accommoda- 
tions for  the  ever  increasing  numbers  of  those 
who  are  eager  to  pursue  this  subject.  I  am 
thoroughly  convinced  that  this  subject  is  keep- 
ing in  school  today  many  boys  who  would  other- 
wise have  left,  and  I  am  equally  convinced  that 
the  Manual  Training  is  proving  itself  to  be  a 
most  valuable  part  of  our  High  School  course. 
President  Pritchett  says  that  an  important 
part  of  Chinese  training  consists  in  learning  sev- 
eral thousand  proverbs  which  are  to  be  swapped 
on  meeting  friends,  and  used  in  the  various  exi- 
gencies of  hfe.  He  has  a  translation  of  a  Chi- 
nese book  containing  several  hundred  of  these 
proverbs.  During  the  recent  excitement  in  New 
York,  President  Pritchett,  being  interested  in 
the  political  affairs  of  the  modern  Babylon,  be- 
thought him  that  it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  con- 
sult his  Chinese  proverbs  in  order  to  find  some- 
thing appropriate  to  the  occasion.  Nor  was  his 
search  in  vain,  for  this  was  what  he  found: 
' '  He  who  rides  a  tiger  cannot  dismount. ' ' 
Now,  gentlemen,  I  fear  that  this  is  also  true 
of  him  who  rides  a  hobby,  and  so  with  thanks 
for  your  courtesy  in  inviting  me  to  this  dinner,  I 


158  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  ^- 

am  going  to  dismount  while  I  can.  But  even 
now  I  begin  to  appreciate  the  truth  of  the  prov- 
erb for  I  cannot  resist  mentioning  certain  rea- 
sons for  the  Manual  Training  Course  in  High 
Schools,  reasons  which  I  found  not  only  in  my 
own  experience,  but  suggested  in  The  Educa- 
tional Review  :  "  Manual  Training  is  not  only 
illustrative,  and  recreative,  but  it  is  valuable  for 
its  practical  utility  and  its  formal  training.  Still 
farther  being  an  agency  for  the  revelation  of 
life  to  the  child  it  belongs  in  the  same  rank  with 
the  humanities  and  science."  I  will  now  dis- 
mount in  good  earnest. 


A  PLEA  FOE  A  HIGHER  CIVILIZATION  AND 
FOR  THE  POETIC  SIDE  OF  LIFE^ 

Mr.  President,  Ladies^  and  Oentlemen : 

The  present  occasion  seems  to  be  a  fitting  time 
to  discuss  certain  questions  which  receive  too 
Uttle  attention  in  the  confusion  of  our  busy  hf e. 
Compared  with  other  lands  our  country  is  very 
young.  On  the  3d  of  September  there  will  be 
celebrated  at  Sandwich  the  250th  anniversary  of 
the  founding  of  that  town,  and  recently  there 
was  dedicated  at  Plymouth  a  monument  in 
honor  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  Sir,  I  need  not 
say  with  what  eloquence  of  utterance,  with  what 
poetic  beauty,  with  what  words  of  patriotism 
that  monument  was  dedicated.  I  need  not  say 
how  sectionalism  was  ignored,  and  race-preju- 
dice forgotten,  how  the  most  polished  oratory 
and  the  most  brilliant  poesy  vied  with  each  other 
in  doing  honor  to  our  sires.  And  what  is  the 
meaning  of  that  monument  ?     As  one  has  said: 

*  An  address  made  at  the  Ashfield  Dinner,  Mr.  Charles  Eliot 
Norton,  presiding. 

(159) 


160  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  ^^ 

"  The  principles  of  the  founders  of  the  colony 
are  represented  by  a  group  of  figures — Morality, 
Education,  Freedom  and  Law,  with  Faith  tower- 
ing above  them  in  the  centre,  resting  one  foot 
on  Plymouth  Eock,  holding  in  her  left  hand  an 
open  Bible,  while  the  uplifted  right  arm  points 
heavenward. ' '  Sir,  all  honor  to  the  spirit  of  our 
Pilgrim  sires.  Your  ancestors  were  among  them 
and  so  were  mine.  The  spirit  which  neither 
love  of  home,  nor  kingly  power,  nor  ocean 
storms,  nor  unknown  shores  could  quell;  the 
spirit  which  neither  the  savage  Indian,  nor  hard- 
ships, nor  even  starvation  and  death  itself  could 
subdue ;  the  spirit  that  embodied  itself  in  Moral- 
ity, Education,  Freedom,  Law,  Faith,  the  Bible, 
and  Heaven — that  spirit  might  well  deserve  a 
lasting  monument. 

There  let  it  stand  beside  the  sounding  sea. 
There  let  it  greet  the  rays  of  morning  hght 
and  bid  farewell  to  the  departing  day,  there  let 
the  dews  and  rains  of  later  years  fall  with  sweet 
influence  on  one  of  the  grandest  memorials  of  a 
glorious  past. 

Sir,  follow  if  you  will  that  spirit  through  the 
three  great  epochs  of  our  country,  the  colonial. 


A  PLEA  FOR   HIGHER   CIVILIZATION  161 

the  Revolutionary,  and  the  era  of  the  civil  war. 
Its  glorious  presence  is  at  Plymouth  Eock,  at 
Lexington,  at  Gettysburg.  Its  mighty  influence 
sports  with  Time,  and  smiles  at  the  boundaries 
of  states.  But,  Sir,  grand  as  were  the  achieve- 
ments of  our  sires,  heroic  as  was  the  uprising  of 
'61,  wonderful  as  is  our  material  progress — are 
there  no  dangerous  tendencies  in  our  civilization  ? 
We  hear  on  every  hand  of  so  many  miles  of  rail- 
road, so  many  factories,  so  many  millionaires 
(I  class  them  with  the  material  things),  so  many 
millions  of  population.  We  hear  on  every  hand 
the  question  "  How  much  is  he  worth  ?  "  but 
that  question  means  something  far  different 
from  what  the  words  imply.  Public  opinion^ 
like  a  very  sphinx,  asks  each  passer  "  How  much 
are  you  worth  ?  "  and,  if  the  answer  falls  below 
the  million  dollar  limit,  woe  to  the  poor  traveller ! 
We  boast  of  our  civilization,  yet  the  air  is  full 
of  realism  in  painting,  in  sculpture,  and  in  liter- 
ature. Men  tell  us  of  bushels  of  grain  and 
tons  of  freight,  and  ask  us  in  aU  seriousness 
"  What  have  we  to  do  with  abroad  ?  " 

Until  we  have  eclipsed  the  intellectual  attain- 
ments of  the  Old  World,  we  have  much  to  do 


162  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  ^^ 

with  abroad,  and  even  when  that  happy  time 
shall  come,  a  decent  gratitude  would  make  us 
cherish  teachers  of  the  olden  time,  a  love  of  the 
noble  would  make  us  linger  fondly  round  the 
scenes  of  a  noble  past.  Men  speak  to  us  of  the 
Holy  Land,  and  they  do  well,  but  there  is  many 
a  spot  not  called  by  that  sacred  name,  that  has 
been  made  holy  land  by  holy  deeds  and  holy  lives. 

Our  civilization  cannot  be  measured  without 
comparison.  As  the  weight  of  water  is  the 
standard  of  specific  gravity ;  as  the  metre  is  the 
basis  of  scientific  calculation ;  so,  in  civilization, 
in  intellectual,  and,  in  many  respects,  in  moral 
questions,  the  civilization  of  Athens  is  the  stand- 
ard of  the  nations.  Says  Dr.  Galton  in  his  work 
on  "  Hereditary  Genius  "  : 

''  The  ablest  race  of  whom  history  bears  record 
is  unquestionably  the  ancient  Greek,  partly  be- 
cause their  masterpieces  in  the  principal  depart- 
ments of  intellectual  activity  are  still  unsur- 
passed and  in  many  respects  unequalled,  and 
partly  because  the  population  that  gave  birth  to 
the  creators  of  these  masterpieces  was  very 
small. ' ' 

Mr.  President,  there  have  been  great  Ameri- 


A  PLEA  FOR  HIGHER   CIVILIZATION  163 

cans,  but  in  what  period  of  100  years  has  our 
country  ever  produced  such  a  record  as  this  of 
Athens,  small  as  she  was  in  population  ? 

''  Statesmen  and  commanders,  Themistocles, 
Miltiades,  Arisfcides,  Cimon,  Pericles.  Literary 
and  Scientific  men,  Thucydides,  Socrates,  Xeno- 
phon,  and  Plato.  Poets,  Aeschylus,  Sophocles, 
Euripides,  Aristophanes.     Sculptor,  Phidias. ' ' 

There  is  Dr.  Galton's  list.  Furthermore,  as 
he  states:  '^  It  follows  from  all  this  that  the 
average  ability  of  the  Athenian  race  is,  on  the 
lowest  possible  estimate,  very  nearly  two  grades 
liigher  than  our  own — that  is,  about  as  much  as 
our  race  is  above  that  of  the  African  negro. 
This  estimate  which  may  seem  prodigious  to 
s  me  (and  which  I  would  say  can  have  no  possi- 
He  reference  to  us  in  Massachusetts,  we  are 
all  so  much  above  the  average)  is  confirmed  by 
the  quick  intelligence  and  high  culture  of  the 
Athenian  commonality,  before  whom  literary 
works  were  recited  and  works  of  art  exhibited 
of  a  far  more  severe  character  than  could  pos- 
sibly be  appreciated  by  the  average  of  our  race, 
the  calibre  of  whose  intellect  is  easily  gauged  by 
a  glance  at  the  contents  of  a  railway  book-stall." 


164  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

Mr.  President,  my  plea  to-day  is  for  a  higher 
civihzation.  Self- satisfaction  must  shrink  back 
appalled  at  the  thought  that  we  of  to-day  are,, 
in  some  respects,  as  regards  the  Athenians  at 
their  best  no  better  than  the  African  negro. 
Sir,  when  I  consider  the  intemperance,  licen- 
tiousness, and  materialism  of  the  times,  I  turrt 
with  pleasure  to  the  picture  of  Athens  at  her 
best.  Under  the  soft  blue  sky  of  Attica,  within 
hearing  of  the  music  of  the  Aegean,  I  see  with 
my  mind's  eye  the  Parthenon  of  old. 

"  Earth  proudly  wears  the  Parthenon, 
As  the  best  gem  upon  her  zone. ' ' 

And  with  that  masterpiece  of  the  ages  I  asso- 
ciate that  wise  self-control  which  made  the  build- 
ing possible,  that  genius  and  nobility  of  mind 
which  could  conceive  such  a  structure. 

Sir,  it  was  my  pleasure  and  privilege  nearly 
ten  years  ago  to  attend  your  lectures  on  the  his- 
tory of  ancient  art.  Most  of  the  principles 
which  I  have  stated  to-day  I  think  that  you 
stated  then.  Whether  or  not  I  learned  my  les- 
son well,  I  must  let  you  judge. 

But  how  shall  we  attain  to  something  of  that 
higher  civilization  that  once  bloomed  with  so 


A  PLEA  FOR   HIGHER   CIVILIZATION  165 

much  splendor  under  Grecian  skies  ?  It  is  no 
easy  task,  for  there  are  many  factors.  I  will 
emphasize  but  one:  the  cultivation  of  the  poetic 
side  of  life.  '*  Familiarity  breeds  contempt," 
says  the  old  adage,  yet  familiarity  with  the  best 
ought  to  breed  the  highest  admiration,  the  deep- 
est reverence,  the  fondest  love. 

There  is  beauty  all  around  us  and  men  pass  it 
by.  Mr.  President,  there  is  a  beauty  of  nature, 
a  beauty  of  art,  a  beauty  of  thought,  a  beauty 
of  word,  a  beauty  of  motion,  a  beauty  of  ac- 
tion. You  have  but  to  lift  your  eyes  to  see  on 
every  hand  mountains  towering  towards  heaven, 
clad  with  a  wealth  of  forest  and  a  profusion  of 
flowers.  Climb  these  mountains,  and  all  around 
you  rise  other  mighty  peaks,  that  fain  would 
lose  themselves  in  the  haze  of  the  distant  blue, 
while  far,  far  below  glisten  the  silvery  streams. 
The  land  is  living  with  thoughts  of  beauty  and 
of  grandeur.  After  one  has  struggled  upward 
through  bush  and  briar,  over  stones  and  cliffs  to 
the  very  summit  of  some  majestic  peak — when, 
breathless,  he  sees  for  the  first  time  that  loveli- 
ness that  can  be  seen  only  from  the  mountain 
lop,  when  the  soul  feasting  on  such  a  scene  feels 


166  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

no  thought  that  is  not  noble,  breathes  no  aspira-- 
tion  that  is  not  high,  then  thick  and  fast  corner 
rushing  in  the  impetuous  full  flood-tide  of  ex- 
alted emotion  surging  billows  of  resistless  long- 
ing that  all  the  world  might  be  as  pure  and  high, 
as  the  thoughts  inspired  by  Nature's  lofty^ 
heights. 

You  have  been,  perhaps,  in  the  valley.  Day 
after  day  the  rain  has  fallen — the  thick  clouds  of 
mist  hide  all  things  but  the  beaten  track,  and 
even  that  is  uncertain.  Yet  when  the  rain 
ceases,  and  the  sun  begins  to  illuminate  the^ 
welcoming  land,  you  have  seen  the  mist  fade 
away,  like  ghosts  at  dawn.  The  rugged  base  of 
the  mountain  with  its  forests  fresh  as  from  a 
bath  in  the  fountain  of  immortal  youth,  first 
discloses  itself  to  view,  and  then  every  breath  of 
the  freshening  breeze  presents  to  your  sight 
some  new  splendor,  until  peak  after  peak,  each 
decked  with  verdure,  and  blushing  with  flowers,, 
stands  revealed  to  the  gazer  and  all  nature 
smiles  with  the  rare,  genial  smile  of  love.  Once^ 
a  band  of  Hungarian  exiles  reached  the  summit 
of  a  mountain  in  Lenox.  They  stopped  to  gaze 
upon  the  view.     Their  knowledge  of  English  waa 


A  PLEA  FOR   HIGHER   CIVILIZATION  167 

limited,  but  it  was  sufficient— for  with  one  con- 
sent they  exclaimed,  "  Beauty,  beauty." 

But  not  only  from  the  beauty  of  nature  may 
we  rise  to  a  higher  civilization.     One  has  wisely 
said : 
"  Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty, 

That  is  all  we  know  and  all  we  need  to  know. " 

We  are  too  prone  to  forget  our  indebtedness 
to  the  poets,  the  painters,  the  architects,  the 
sculptors  of  all  time.  The  subject  is  a  vast  one. 
As  one  who  wanders  through  a  collection  of  pic- 
tures, no  matter  how  many  "  phantoms  of  de- 
light ' '  may  be  presented  to  his  view,  no  matter 
how  rich  the  warmth  of  color,  or  how  true  the 
grace  of  form,  bears  away  with  him  only  vague 
remembrances  of  many  dimly  remembered 
scenes,  unless  he  has  determined  to  keep  his  at- 
tention on  only  a  few  pictures,  so  in  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  subject  before  me  I  will  not  speak  of 
Homer  the  majestic,  or  of  Dante  the  divine;  I 
will  not  speak  of  Shakspere. 

''  Who  still  unmeasured  sits,"  of  whom  it  has 
well  been  said : 

''  The  men  who  Hved  with  him  became 
Poets,  for  the  air  was  fame." 


168  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

The  ''  Swede  Emanuel "  shall  have  no  meed 
of  praise  to-day,  nor  yet  the  genius  of  that 
mighty  Goethe  whose 

"  Finger  wrote  in  clay 
The  open  secret  of  to-day." 

Phidias  may  rest  unpraised  beside  his  ' '  awful 
Jove";  Eaphael  with  his  Madonnas — I  will 
speak  of  one  who,  to  my  mind,  of  all  Ameri- 
cans has  most  of  that  higher  civilization,  of  that 
^'  bard  and  sage  ", 
''  Who  in  large  thoughts,  Hke  fair  pearl-seed, 
Could  string  Monadnoc  like  a  bead." 

Oh  you  who  seek  the  higher  civilization,  go  to 
him  who  loved  the  "  beautiful  disdain  of  mu- 
sic ",  who  "  through  the  wild-piled  snow-drift  " 
saw  "  the  warm  rosebuds  below  ".  Go  to  him 
who  felt  that  '^  man  in  the  bush  with  God  may 
meet  ",  who  felt  that  ''  beauty  is  its  own  excuse 
for  being, "  to  him  who  saw  "  only  what  is  fair, " 
sipped  "  only  what  is  sweet  ".  Go  to  him  who 
knew  the  mystery  of  blossoms,  and  the  language 
of  birds,  who  learned  the  "  lore  of  time  ",  who 
knew  that  "  South  winds  have  long  memories  ", 
who  where'er  he  went,  "  heard  the  sky-born  mu- 
sic still,"  whose  trumpet  note  for  all  time  rings 
clear  and  true : 


A  PLEA  FOR   HIGHER   CIVILIZATION  169 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 

When  duty  whispers  low.  Thou  must^ 

The  youth  rephes,  I  can,^^ 
Mr.  President  it  is  appropriate  that  in  your 
beautiful  new  building  there  should  be  portraits 
and  medallions  of  benefactors  and  friends.  It 
gave  me  great  pleasure  to  see  that  recognition 
of  pubhc  spirit  and  devotion  to  the  higher  civili- 
zation. It  has  been  said  that  the  Academy  is 
the  best  thing  in  the  town  of  Ashfield,  but  bet- 
ter than  the  Academy  is  the  academic  spirit,  that 
lofty  ideal  tone  of  mind,  and  who  possesses  it  to  a 
higher  degree  than  Mr.  Curtis,  whom,  as  one  has 
said,  "  I  would  rather  hear  than  the  sweetest 
music,"  or  Lowell  who  has  spoken  some  of  the 
noblest  words  ever  uttered  by  an  American,  or 
Longfellow  "  whose  choicest  verse  is  harsher 
toned  than  he,'-  or  you,  Sir,  America's  admira- 
ble Orichton,  peerless  as  an  authority  on  art,  the 
friend  of  scholars,  because  a  scholar,  and  withal 
as  genial  as  Sophocles  ? 


HIGH  SCHOOL  ELECTIVES 

Mr.  President^  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  the  New 
Jersey  High  School  Teachers''  Association : 

As  a  very  liberal  system  of  electives  has  been 
introduced  into  the  Boston  High  Schools,  and  as 
Boston  High  School  Head-Masters  are  now  able 
to  give  the  results  of  practical  experience  in  this 
direction,  it  may  be  a  matter  of  coDsiderable 
interest  to  others  to  learn  precisely  what  the 
Boston  system  of  electives  is,  what  led  to  it, 
how  it  works,  what  improvements  are  desirable, 
what  faults  it  may  have  disclosed,  and  what  ad- 
vantages it  possesses  over  other  systems. 

I  quote  School  Document  No.  9,  1901,  Eevised 
1903. 

1.  The  High  Schools  are  in  session  five  hours 
a  day  for  five  days  in  the  week.  The  sessions 
may  be  extended  not  exceeding  two  hours,  pro- 
vided no  pupils  are  therebj^  required  to  attend 
school  more  than  five  hours  daily. 

2.  Of  the  five  hours  a  day,  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  is  given  to  opening  exercises,  and  half  an 

(170) 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  171 

hour  to  recess.  The  rest  of  the  time  is  divided 
into  five  or  six  periods  of  not  less  than  forty 
minutes  each. 

3.  In  the  first  three  years,  two  periods  weekly 
are  required  to  be  given  to  physical  trainingy 
one  to  music  or  to  some  study  substituted  for 
music,  and  one,  for  a  part  of  the  year,  to  hygi- 
ene, including  the  special  instruction  required 
by  law. 

4.  Of  the  remaining  periods,  fifteen  or,  in 
some  cases,  sixteen,  are  given  to  studies  chosen 
from  the  lists  of  elective  studies.  The  other 
periods  are  called  study  periods. 

5.  In  the  fourth  year,  gymnastics,  military 
drill,  hygiene,  and  music  are  no  longer  required* 
The  regular  amount  of  work  this  year  in  the 
elective  studies  is  sixteen  periods. 

6.  A  pupil  may  be  permitted  or  may  be  re- 
quired, for  reasons  satisfactory  to  the  parent  or 
guardian  and  to  the  Head-Master,  to  take  less 
than  the  full  amount  of  work  in  the  elective 
studies,  and  this  reduction  may  be  made  at  any 
time  in  the  school  year. 

7.  A  pupil  of  good  health  and  ability  may,  for 
good  reasons,  be  permitted  to  take  more  than 


172  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  _^ 

the  full  amount  of  work  in  the  elective  studies. 

8.  A  change  from  one  elective  study  to  an- 
other is  not  regularly  permitted  after  the  end  of 
September  except  when  such  a  change  is  made 
necessary  by  the  discontinuance  of  a  class. 

9.  Pupils  who  intend  to  enter  the  Boston 
Normal  School  make  their  choice  of  elective 
studies  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  for 
admission  to  that  school.  Pupils  desiring  to 
prepare  for  college  or  other  higher  institution  of 
learning  are  advised  as  to  their  choice  of  studies 
by  the  Head-Master  and  teachers  of  their  re- 
spective High  schools. 

10.  At  the  end  of  any  year,  pupils  not  receiv- 
ing diplomas  receive  certificates  of  proficiency 
for  those  studies  in  which  their  year's  record 
has  been  satisfactory.  These  certificates  show 
the  number  of  points  credited  towards  a  di- 
ploma. 

11.  Pupils  are  admitted  to  advanced  standing 
and  receive  certificates  in  one  or  more  elective 
studies  on  presenting  satisfactory  evidence  of 
proficiency  therein. 

12.  Diplomas  are  granted  for  quantity  and 
quality  of  work,  represented  as  follows : 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  173 

(1)  The  amount  of  work  represented  by  one 
period  a  week  for  one  year  in  any  elective  study 
counts  as  one  point  towards  winning  a  diploma. 
Two  periods  of  unprepared  recitations  or  labora- 
tory work  are  considered  equivalent  to  one  period 
of  prepared  work.  For  physical  training  three 
points,  for  music  or  the  study  substituted  for 
music  one  point,  and  for  hygiene  one  point  are 
allowed  for  each  of  the  first  three  years. 

(2)  The  number  of  periods  a  week,  or  diploma 
points,  assigned  to  each  elective  study  is  three, 
four  or  five,  as  determined  by  the  H^ad-Masters, 
each  for  his  own  school,  with  the  approval  of 
the  Board  of  Supervisors. 

(3)  The  points  assigned  for  each  study  or  ex- 
ercise are  all  won  or  all  lost  on  the  whole  year's 
record  of  recitations  and  examinations  in  that 
study  or  exercise,  and  the  standard  used  for  de- 
termining whether  this  record  be  satisfactory  or 
otherwise  is  such  as  has  been  approved  by  the 
Board  of  Supervisors. 

(4)  A  full  year's  work  is  credited  with  twenty 
points,  five  for  required  exercises  and  fifteen  for 
elective  studies  in  each  of  the  first  three  years, 


174  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

and  sixteen  for  elective  studies  in  the  fourth 
year. 

(5)  The  First  Diploma  is  awarded  to  pupils 
who  have  won  sixty  points,  which  usually  re- 
quires three  years'  attendance  at  school;  and  the 
Second  Diploma  is  awarded  for  seventy- six 
points. 

13.  Copies  of  this  Course  of  Study  together 
with  such  suggestions  as  to  the  choice  of  studies 
as  may  be  useful  to  pupils  intending  to  enter  a 
High  School  and  to  their  parents  and  friends  are 
distributed  annually  in  the  month  of  April  to  all 
members  of  the  graduating  classes  of  the  Gram- 
mar Schools. 

MORAL   TRAINING 

A  part  of  the  time  assigned  to  the  opening 
exercises  is  used  in  giving  instruction  in  morals 
and  manners.  Teachers  will,  at  all  times,  "  ex- 
ert their  best  endeavors  to  impress  on  the  minds 
of  children  and  youth  committed  to  their  care 
and  instruction,  the  principles  of  piety  and  jus- 
tice, and  a  sacred  regard  to  truth ;  love  of  their 
country,  humanity,  and  universal  benevolence; 
sobriety,  industry,  and  frugality  ;  chastity, 
moderation,   and  temperance;  and  those  other 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  175 

virtues  which  are  the  ornament  of  human  so- 
ciety, and  basis  upon  which  a  repubhcan  consti- 
tution is  founded." — Extract  from  the  Oeneral 
Statutes  of  Massachusetts. 

MUSIC 

Instruction  in  music  is  regularly  given  one 
period  a  week  to  all  pupils  who  w^ish  to  take  it. 
Pupils  who  do  not  take  music  are  required  to 
give  the  period  to  reading,  or  to  increase  by  one 
period  the  time  given  to  elective  studies. 

The  Elective  studies  are  arranged  in  four  lists, 
corresponding  to  the  four  years  a  pupil  is  sup- 
posed to  spend  in  school. 

The  first  list  contains  the  studies  open  to  the 
pupil's  election  in  his  first  year.  The  second, 
third,  and  fourth  lists  contain  the  additional 
studies  open  to  his  election  in  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing years  respectively. 

Eoman  numerals  appended  to  the  name  of 
a  study  indicate  the  successive  years  of  work  in 
that  study.  In  general  no  pupil  is  allowed  to 
take  an  elective  study  for  which  his  previous 
studies  have  not  prepared  him. 

Programmes  of  study  made  up  by  the  Head- 
Masters  and  showing  the  number  of  periods  a 


176  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  ^ 

week  assigned  to  each  elective  study  must  be 
approved  by  the  Board  of  Supervisors  before 
being  used  in  any  High  School. 

FIRST   YEAR 

English  I.  English  classic  authors^  Gram- 
mar, Composition,  Reading,  and  Speaking. 

History  L  Ancient  history,  chiefly  that  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  to  the  fall  of  the  Western 
Roman  Empire. 

Latin  I. 

Freyich  I. 

German  I. 

Algebra  I.  Elementary  algebra,  including 
quadratic  equations. 

Geometry  I.     Plane  geometry. 

Biology  I.     Botany  and  zoology."^ 

Drawing  I. 

Bookkeeping  I.  Bookkeeping  proper  begun, 
together  with  commercial  arithmetic,  penman- 
ship and  commercial  forms. 

Phonography  and  Typewriting  I. 

SECOND   YEAR 

Any  study  in  the  first  year's  list  not  already 

*  Pupils  preparing  for  the  Normal  School  are  expected  to  take 
Biology  I  and  II  andThysiology^ 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  177 

taken,  or  Dot  successfully  completed,  may  be 
taken  this  year. 

English  IL  As  before.  Grammar  ended  and 
rhetoric  begun. 

History  IL  Mediaeval  and  early  modern  his-^ 
tory,  to  A.D.  1700. 

Greek  L 

Latin  LL, 

French  LL, 

German  LL. 

Spanish  L. 

Algebra  LL,     Advanced  topics  and  methods. 

Geometry  LL,     Solid  Geometry. 

Biology  LL,  Required  as  the  one  suitable  prep- 
aration for  physiology. 

Physics  L, 

Chemistry  L, 

Drawing  LL, 

Bookkeeping  LL, 

Phonography  and  Typewriting  LL. 

Commercial  Geography, 

LLousehold  Science  and  Arts, 

THIRD   YEAR 

Any  study  in  the  earlier  hsts  not  already  taken 


178  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  - 

or  successfully  completed  may  be  taken  this 
year. 

English  III,  Literature,  rhetoric,  and  com- 
position as  before.  Pupils  preparing  for  college 
read  the  authors  or  books  prescribed  by  the  col- 
leges for  that  purpose. 

History  III.  Modern  History,  from  A.  D. 
1700. 

Civil  Government. 

Greek  II. 

Latin  III. 

French  III. 

German  III. 

Spanish  II. 

Mathematics  III. 

Physics  II. 

Chemistry  II. 

Physiology.  To  follow  two  years'  study  of 
biology. 

Drawing  III. 

Phonography  and  Typewriting  III. 

Commercial  Law. 

Household  Science  and  Arts. 

FOURTH   YEAR 

Any  study  in    the    earlier    lists  not  already 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECllVES  179 

taken  or  successfully  completed  may  be  taken 
this  year. 

English  IV,  A  study  of  the  history  and  for- 
mation of  the  English  language  and  of  speci- 
mens of  the  earlier  literature.     Chaucer. 

History  IV.  The  political  history  of  the 
United  States  under  the  Constitution. 

Economics,  The  elementary  definitions  and 
principles  of  the  science  with  such  illustrations 
as  are  appropriate  to  a  first  reading  of  the  sub- 
ject in  High  Schools. 

Greek  III, 

Latin  IV. 

French  IV. 

German  IV. 

Spanish  III. 

Mathematics  IV. 

Physical  Geography. 

Astronomy. 

Drawing  IV. 

A  summary  shows  the  following  facts: — 

English,  4  years. 

History,  4  years. 

Xiatin,  4  years. 

Greek,  3  years. 


180  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  ^ 

French,  4  years. 

Spanish,  3  years. 

German,  4  years. 

Mathematics,  4  years. 

Science,  4  years. 

Bookkeeping,  2  years. 

Phonography  and  Typewriting,  3  years. 

Household  Science  and  Arts,  3  years. 

Drawing,  4  years. 

Spanish,  3  years. 

Commercial  Geography,  1  year. 

Commercial  Law,  1  year. 

Economics,  1  year. 

Any  study  in  a  previous  year  not  already 
taken  may  be  taken  in  a  following  year. 

That,  Mr.  President,  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms  is  the  Boston  system  of  electives.  And 
what  led  to  it  ?  The  discussions  in  our  Head- 
masters' meetings  developed  the  fact  that  the 
previous  courses  of  study,  though  liberal  in 
many  respects  and  of  undoubted  value,  were 
insufficiently  flexible,  imposed  unnecessary  hard- 
ship on  teachers  and  pupils,  and  failed  to  meet 
the  wants  of  the  separate  communities.  Why, 
for  example,  should  a  pupil  without  any  taste 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  181 

for  drawing  be  compelled  to  take  that  subject 
for  years  to  the  positive  injury  of  himself,  his 
teacher  and  his  class  ?  Why  should  not  book- 
keeping, typewriting,  shorthand,  and  other  valu- 
able commercial  subjects  be  given  a  place  in  the 
High  School  course  ?  It  must  be  remembered 
that  in  our  large  cities,  at  least,  the  public  High 
School  is  subject  to  the  closest  scrutiny  and  the 
fiercest  competition.  Private  schools  of  high 
^excellence,  able  to  obtain  remarkable  results 
from  the  efficiency  of  their  teachers  and  the 
smallness  of  their  classes  must  not  be  left  out  of 
the  consideration.  To  ascertain  the  educational 
needs  of  your  community  and  to  meet  these 
needs  effectively,  are  problems  that  demand  suc- 
cessful solution. 

You  may  have  observed  that  manual  training 
was  not  mentioned  in  the  list,  but  you  will  be 
glad  to  learn  that  this  subject  also  is  offered  in 
the  Brighton  High  School.  The  other  day  when 
I  was  taking  Professor  Hanus  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity over  my  building  what,  do  you  suppose, 
roused  his  enthusiasm  most  ?  The  Manual  train- 
ing benches  and  tools  side  by  side  with  the  tables 
and  apparatus  of  the  physical  laboratory.     The 


182  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

Manual  training  has  now  been  authorized  and 
it  has  so  many  friends  on  the  School  Commit- 
tee, that,  in  my  opinion,  it  has  come  to  stay.. 
But,  some  one  may  say  "  Your  system  is  all  very 
good,  but  it  is  not  sufficiently  explicit,  and  does; 
not  tell  us  how  many  times  a  week  the  subjects 
come,  or  how  much  the  different  subjects  count/' 
That  is  a  just  criticism  of  the  surface  appear- 
ance of  the  plan,  but,  in  reality,  the  omission  of 
such  details  is  a  great  blessing  for  this  reason :: 
the  discretion  of  the  Head-Master  must  be  used 
in  the  arrangement  of  details.  Some  people  im- 
agine that  the  doctrine  of  High  School  electives 
implies  that  you  must  put  every  subject  on  the 
same  footing.  Only  a  few  days  ago  two  of  my 
respected  colleagues  in  Boston  tried  to  "  deposit 
me  in  a  cavity  ",  as  our  learned  Doctor  Everett 
used  to  say  in  Congress,  because  advocating 
High  School  electives  with  all  my  might  for 
years,  I  advocated  a  difference  in  the  value  to 
be  assigned  to  typewriting  and  Latin.  Now  I 
have  never  understood  that  the  elective  system 
implies  the  absolute  equality  of  all  subjects. 
To  my  mind  there  is  a  real  difference  in  a  lesson 
requiring  an  hour's  preparation  and  one  that  re- 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  183^ 

quires  none — a  difference  that  must  be  recog- 
nized later  if  not  sooner.  An  hour  of  labora- 
tory work  in  the  opinion  of  many  should  not  be 
assigned  the  same  value  as  an  hour  of  recitation 
in  science.  Fortunately,  however,  large  liberty 
is  accorded  the  Boston  Head-Masters  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  all  such  details.  To  draw  up  a 
course  of  study  that  will  meet  the  needs  of  the 
varying  communities  of  a  great  city,  is  a  most 
complex  educational  problem.  With  the  in- 
creasing number  of  pupils  and  the  additional 
subjects  it  was  soon  ascertained  that  either  the 
school  day  must  be  prolonged  or  the  subjects 
must  be  given  less  frequently  than  is  desirable 
on  the  principle  of  concentration,  or  the  recita- 
tion periods  must  be  somewhat  shortened.  My 
own  solution  was  to  shorten  the  recitation  peri- 
ods to  about  42  minutes  and  to  give  the  subjects 
or  most  of  them  as  frequently  as  possible  up  to 
five  times  a  week.  Some  of  the  High  Schools 
have  tried  the  experiment  of  extending  the 
school  day  to  3  or  4  o'clock,  but  in  one  instance, 
at  least,  this  plan  proved  unsatisfactory,  and 
was  abandoned,  while  the  method  of  shortened 
periods   was    adopted    with    complete    success. 


184 


EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 


The  addition  of  six  periods  in  the  week  is  a  sub- 
stantial help  towards  the  solution  of  the  pro- 
gramme difficulty,  and  it  is  found  entirely  prac- 
ticable by  this  system  to  arrange  double  periods 
for  drawing  and  science. 

Under  the  plan  of  six  periods  a  day  my 
scheme  of  studies  for  next  year  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  following  schedule  for  the  entering 
class : 


English, 

5  hours. 

4  units. 

History, 

3  hours, 

3  units. 

Latin, 

5  hours, 

4  units. 

French, 

5  hours. 

4  units. 

German, 

5  hours. 

4  units. 

Algebra, 

5  hours. 

4  units. 

Biology, 

3  hours. 

3  units. 

Drawing, 

3  hours. 

3  units. 

Bookkeeping, 

5  hours. 

4  units. 

Phonography 

and 

Typewriting, 

7  hours. 

5  units. 

Manual  Training    3  hours,    3  units. 

You  may  ask,  why  give  English  five  times 

and  count  it  only  four  units  ?     The  answer  is : 

Because  by  introducing  six  periods  a  day  instead 

of  five  the  length  of  the  period  was  shortened. 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  185 

Consequently,  the  five  short  periods  were  equal 
in  time  to  only  four  longer  bnes.  It  is  my  belief 
that  the  arrangement  of  six  periods  is  very  much 
better  than  that  of  five  not  simply  on  account 
of  the  greater  ease  of  making  out  the  pro- 
gramme, but  on  account  of  its  results  in  the 
way  of  securing  animation  and  actual  work. 
The  better  programme  insures  wider  choice  and, 
consequently,  greater  interest.  The  greater  fre- 
quency of  recitations  is  fully  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  of  concentration,  and  meets  specif- 
ically the  requirements  of  our  best  higher  insti- 
tutions. It  is  in  complete  harmony  also  with 
the  recommendations  of  the  American  Philo- 
logical Society.  Furthermore,  it  affords  more 
frequent  exercise  by  the  change  of  classes,  an 
interesting  fact  in  view  of  the  perfectly  natural 
uneasiness  of  many  boys  and  girls,  in  the  atmos- 
pere  of  the  average  schoolroom,  an  atmos- 
phere, Mr.  President,  which  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten  is  demonstrably  drier  than  that  of  the  desert 
of  Sahara,  and,  consequently,  conducive  to 
catarrhal,  throat,  and  lung  diseases  in  addition 
to  general  discomfort.  It  is  an  important  fact 
that  several  of  our  Boston  High  Schools  have 


186  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

practically  been  compelled  to  adopt  the  six  period 
plan  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  elective  sys- 
tem. It  is  a  still  more  significant  fact  that  those 
Head-Masters  and  teachers  who  have  actually 
tried  the  scheme  like  it  much  better  than  the 
old  plan  of  longer  recitations.  Still  further  evi- 
dence on  this  subject  is  found  in  the  experience 
of  the  good  old  Roxbury  Ijatin  School  w^hich 
has  adopted  the  six  period  plan  not  so  much  in 
consequence  of  the  elective  system,  for  the  insti- 
tution is  primarly  a  fitting  school  for  Harvard, 
but  simply  on  account  of  the  marked  superiority 
of  the  plan. 

Extreme  conservatives  have  called  the  elective 
system  some  very  hard  or  very  easy  names  ac- 
cording to  the  point  of  view.  "  Go-as-you- 
please,"  '' let-down- the-bars,"  '^chocolate-eclair 
back-bone,"  and  other  hard  and  soft  expressions 
have  been  used,  but  have  these  conservatives, 
whose  motives  I  would  be  the  last  to  impugn, 
carefully  weighed  the  natural  self -limitation  of 
the  elective  principle  ?  Electives  in  Boston  are 
about  as  free  as  they  are  anywhere,  but  that 
admirable  freedom  at  many  turns  runs  up 
against  the  nature  of  things.     If  some   of  the 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  187 

functions  of  a  great  public  High  School  are  the 
fitting  of  pupils  for  college,  scientific  school, 
professional  school,  normal  schools  of  various 
kinds,  as  well  as  for  business,  and  always  for  life, 
is  it  not  perfectly  evident  that  a  student's  choice 
must  be  governed  by  the  requirements  of  the' 
institution  to  which  he  wishes  to  go,  or,  in  some 
measure,  by  the  requirements  of  the  position 
which  he  wishes  to  fill  ?  Furthermore,  almost 
any  scheme  even  of  elective  studies  by  the  very- 
nature  of  things  involves  an  orderly  procedure 
from  the  elementary  through  the  more  complex 
towards  the  most  difficult.  A  pupil  cannot  take 
the  second  year  of  Latin  until  he  has  mastered 
the  first  year's  work.  The  same  statement  may 
be  made  about  Greek,  French,  German,  Span- 
ish, and  other  subjects.  Although  there  is  room 
for  wide  difference  of  opinion  about  the  order 
of  studies,  in  the  opinion  of  many  physical 
geography  may  wisely  be  preceded  by  astrono- 
my, geology,  and  botany.  Astronomy  and  phys- 
ics require  a  good  knowledge  of  elementary 
mathematics.  Advanced  bookkeeping  presup- 
poses a  knowledge  of  elementary  bookkeeping. 
A  student  of  drawing  who  should  attempt  per- 


188  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

spective  and  figure  drawing  at  the  first  step 
would  not  be  likely  to  profit  much  by  his  efforts. 

Still  further,  another  limitation  is  to  be  found 
in  the  number  of  teachers  that  the  average  mu- 
nicipality can  afford  to  supply.  Within  reason- 
able limits  the  question  of  the  merits  of  large, 
moderate  sized,  and  small  classes  is  a  debatable 
one,  and  there  is  room  for  enthusiasm  over  any 
one  of  the  three  kinds  of  classes.  It  is  gener- 
ally acknowledged,  however,  that  our  present 
danger  lies  in  the  direction  of  too  large  rather 
than  in  that  of  too  small  classes.  But,  as  a 
general  rule,  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  there  is  a 
limit  beyond  which  a  class  cannot  be  reduced 
with  profit  to  the  public.  Meritorious  as  indi- 
vidual instruction  is,  and  beneficial  as  its  results 
are  in  many  cases,  no  rational  being  would,  at 
present,  ask  a  city  to  furnish  children  with  pri- 
vate tutors.  Consequently,  the  individual  choice 
of  studies  finds  another  limitation  in  the  num- 
ber of  teachers  that  can  be  reasonably  afforded. 

Still,  further,  absolute  freedom  of  choice  is 
limited  by  the  advice  and  authority  of  teachers 
and  parents.  In  almost  all  of  the  institutions  of 
secondary  grade  in  which  the  elective  plan  has 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  189 

been  adopted,  the  choice  of  the  pupil  is  made 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Head-Master  of 
the  school.  An  additional  Hmitation  is  found  in 
the  prevalent  ideas  about  the  necessity  of  pur- 
suing certain  studies.  Many  highly  intelhgent 
persons  have  very  strong  convictions  about  the 
intrinsic  value  of  particular  branches  and  the 
expediency  of  gaining  at  least  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  them.  Such  convictions  have 
been  influential  in  creating  and  maintaining  a 
demand  for  the  study  of  English,  mathematics, 
and  Latin,  to  mention  only  three  of  the  subjects 
under  consideration.  The  quality  of  the  teach- 
ing, and  the  natural  taste  of  the  student  have 
received  too  little  attention  in  the  discussion  of 
the  abstract  value  of  subjects.  Prevalent  opin- 
ions are  also  responsible,  in  a  measure,  for  the 
widely  spread  behef  that  such  studies  as  book- 
keeping, commercial  arithmetic,  stenography, 
penmanship,  and  typewriting,  furnish  an  import- 
ant part  of  a  good  training  for  commerce.  In 
many  instances,  too,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
limitations  of  the  school  building  are  also,  to 
some  extent,  limitations  of  the  elective  system, 
while  the  restricted  amount  of  apparatus  may 


190  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

also  prove  to  be  still  another  limitation.  It  will 
be  perfectly  clear,  I  think,  from  the  statement  of 
these  limitations,  that  all  the  forms  of  elective, 
namely  by  subjects,  by  courses,  or  by  groups, 
will  be  found  in  any  High  School  in  which  a 
genuine  attempt  is  made  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  community. 

It  is  my  desire  to  anticipate  some  of  the  ques- 
tions that  will  occur  to  any  intelligent  inquirer 
about  the  system. 

Do  the  numbers  of  the  pupils  increase  under 
the  elective  system  ?  Yes.  So  far  as  my  own 
experience  goes,  both  in  Quincy,  Massachusetts, 
and  in  Boston,  every  extension  of  the  elective 
system  has  resulted  in  an  increased  attendance. 
In  Quincy,  you  will  pardon  me  for  the  personal 
reference,  the  High  School  increased  172  %  in 
seven  years,  and  the  extension  of  the  elective 
system  was  almost  as  great  as  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  the  pupils.  In  the  Brighton  Dis- 
trict, Boston,  the  increase  has  been  marked, 
although  the  competition  with  the  Boston  Latin, 
the  Girls'  Latin,  the  Girls'  High,  the  Boys' 
English  High,  the  Mechanic  Arts  High  School, 
and   numerous    excellent    and    very   accessible 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  191 

private  schools,  tends  to  delay  so  extraordinary 
an  increase  as  occurred  in  Quincy. 

Is  the  attendance  as  regular  ?  Yes.  Is  the 
falling  off  in  numbers  during  the  year  greater 
or  less  ?  Considerably  less.  Is  the  interest  dis- 
played in  recitations  as  great  as  formerly,  and 
is  the  merit  of  the  work  done  equal  to  that  un- 
der former  conditions  ?  In  my  opinion,  both  the 
interest  and  the  merit  are  much  greater  than 
before.  Does  it  appear  that  immature  pupils, 
possibly  children  of  parents  who  have  enjoyed 
few  formal  scholastic  advantages,  choose  their 
subjects  wisely  ?  I  frame  that  question  as  un- 
favorably as  possible,  because  I  have  heard  it 
put  in  just  that  form  so  many  times,  and  because 
it  embodies  one  of  the  most  frequent  objections 
to  the  elective  system.  My  reply  is  again:  Yes, 
as  a  rule,  the  pupils  choose  wisely,  and  further- 
more there  is  considerable  difficulty  in  choosing 
with  that  absolutely  abandoned  folly  which  is 
supposed  by  some  to  be  characteristic  of  adoles- 
cent choice.  It  is  my  solemn  conviction  that,  if 
a  child  has  not  developed  some  judgment  by 
:the  time  he  is  fifteen  years  of  age,  it  is  high 
time  in  educational  quarters,  at  least,  to  give 


192  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

him  something  on  which  to  exercise  those 
atrophied  areas  up  to  that  age  unused  to  activi- 
ty. The  exercise  of  choice  is  one  of  the  most, 
characteristic  and  noblest  attributes  of  human- 
ity, and  the  sooner  it  can  be  trained  by  actual 
use,  the  better.  The  graduate  of  the  High 
School  is  not  fitted  for  college,  if  he  has  never 
exercised  any  choice  in  preparation  for  a  higher 
institution  where  electives  are  becoming  yearly 
more  free.  In  fact,  my  ideas  on  this  subject 
coincide  with  those  of  President  Eliot  of  Har- 
vard University,  the  great  apostle  of  election, 
who  would  have  electives  not  only  in  universi- 
ties, colleges,  and  high  schools,  but  even  in  the 
upper  grades  of  grammar  schools.  And  this, 
opinion,  which  to  many  may  seem  extremely 
radical  is  based  upon  the  scientific  fact  that  the 
age  for  the  beginning  of  foreign  languages  to  the 
best  advantage  precedes  the  usual  high  school 
age. 

Is  it  proper  to  bring  pressure  to  bear  upon 
pupils  to  induce  them  to  take  subjects  which 
you  regard  as  highly  important  for  them  ?  To 
a  certain  extent,  yes,  although  I  once  heard 
one  of   the  most  noted  superintendents  in  tho 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  193^^ 

United  States  say  that  while  he  had  given  pupils 
a  great  deal  of  advice  about  their  subjects,  he 
now  took  it  all  back,  because  he  thought  they 
could  choose  better  for  themselves.  There  was 
considerable  truth  as  well  as  poetry  in  that 
remark.  Are  not  the  students  inclined  to  choose 
the  easiest  subjects  in  consequence  of  innate 
laziness  ?  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  no 
pupils  follow  the  lines  of  least  resistance  under 
the  elective  system,  but  that  such  a  tendency 
is  characteristic  of  any  large  number  of  stu- 
dents my  experience  would  emphatically  deny. 
I  have  observed  a  tendency  to  take  too  many^ 
hard  subjects  rather  than  to  take  too  few  easy 
ones.  Furthermore,  an  honest  attempt  is  made 
to  secure  some  uniformity  of  difficulty  in  the 
various  subjects.  For  example,  the  business 
subjects,  in  some  schools  considered  unduly 
easy,  are  deliberately  made  reasonably  hard. 
In  short,  it  is  expected  and  intended  that  all  the 
subjects  of  the  High  School  shall  offer  suitable 
exercise  for  intelligent  industry. 

Do  you  find  that  many  pupils  wish  to  change 
their  subjects,  after  choosing  them  and  finding 
them  more  difficult  than  they  had  anticipated^ 


194  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  __. 

and  how  late  in  the  school  year  do  you  ordinarily 
allow  such  changes  ?  Still,  further,  what  re- 
sults have  you  observed  from  a  refusal  to  grant 
requests  for  a  change  of  studies  coming  after 
the  time-limit  set  for  such  changes  ? 

The  requests  for  such  changes  both  on  the 
part  of  pupils  and  of  parents  are  very  much 
fewer  than  they  were  under  compulsory  or  semi- 
elective  plans.  In  fact  one  of  the  most  pleasing 
features  of  the  elective  principle  is  the  remark- 
able persistency  of  choice.  It  is  a  curious  fact, 
observable  best  under  strictly  compulsory  sys- 
tems, that  in  a  long  series  of  years  nearly  all 
the  studies  of  the  High  School  curriculum  have 
been  branded  as  "  useless  "  by  some  more  or 
less  intelligent  parent.  And  it  is  a  still  more 
curious  fact  that,  in  spite  of  the  natural  feeling 
of  indignation  that  one  feels  on  hearing  so 
seemingly  absurd  a  statement,  that  there  is, 
so  far  as  individuals  are  concerned,  a  modicum 
of  truth  in  it.  There  is  nothing  so  complex, 
so  baffling,  so  unamenable  to  rules  other  than 
its  own,  than  the  human  mind.  The  French 
have  a  theory  of  diseases:  II  n^y  a  pas  des 
maladies,  iln^y  a  que  des  malades  :  There  are 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  195 

HO  diseases,  there  are  only  sick  people."  Or,  as 
the  boy  translated  it :  "  There  are  no  diseases, 
there  are  only  sicks. ' '  This  proverb  I  have  quoted 
before,  and  in  my  opinion  it  is  good  enough  to 
quote  again.  In  other  words,  each  case  of  every 
disease  presents  its  own  peculiarities.  A  similar 
statement  may  be  made  with  equal  truth  about 
each  case  of  health.  Just  so  with  the  human 
mind :  what  is  one  pupil's  meat  is  another  pupil's 
poison.  And  a  very  good  reason  for  this  differ- 
ence is  found  not  only  in  the  natural  and  in- 
herited tastes  of  the  individual,  but  also  in  the 
rate  of  moral,  mental,  and  physical  develop- 
ment, which  is  astonishingly  different  in  various 
individuals.  And  so  instead  of  saying  "  mathe- 
matics cultivates  the  reasoning  power,  lan- 
guages cultivate  the  memory  and  the  taste  to- 
gether with  the  power  of  expression,  sciences 
cultivate  the  powers  of  observation;  "  say  rather 
different  pupils  cultivate  the  mental  powers  by 
pursuing  different  studies,  and  at  different  ages. 
Strange  as  it  may  appear,  a  poor  mathematician 
may  become  a  good  logician.  One  may  develop 
from  the  study  of  Greek  a  kind  of  observation 
not  to  be  derived  from  science.     Another  may 


196  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

cultivate  his  imagination  better  by  higher  math- 
ematics than  he  can  by  poetry,  although  the 
mental  development  due  to  the  study  of  one 
subject  is  generally  somewhat  restricted  to  that 
and  kindred  subjects.  Dr.  Hinsdale,  for  exam- 
ple, has  shown  that  the  Indian,  while  at  home 
in  the  pathless  forests,  is  vastly  inferior  to  the 
ordinary  street-boy  in  the  mazes  of  London. 
And  so  the  educational  doctors  who  prescribed 
one  study  to  secure  good  reasoning  from  all 
pupils,  and  another  to  cultivate  the  powers  of 
observation,  and  another  to  train  the  memory, 
and  a  cast-iron  curriculum  for  the  general  good 
of  each  and  all,  were  not  unlike  the  worthy  pro- 
prietor of  a  country  store,  who  used  to  empty 
medicine  from  returned  bottles  into  one  common 
receptacle,  bottle  up  the  result,  and  sell  the  com- 
pound for  a  complication  of  diseases.  A  cast- 
iron  compulsory  curriculum  is  undoubtedly  mado 
up  of  studies  that,  properly  taught,  are  good  for 
individuals,  but  the  compound,  if  swallowed  for 
a  complication  of  diseases,  may  be  worse  than 
the  diseases  themselves.  An  irate  congressman 
once  remarked  that  for  his  fellow  congressmen 
as  individuals  he  had  the  profoundest  respect 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  197 

and  affectioD,  but  that,  taking  them  collectively, 
he  regarded  them  as  the  worst  combination  of 
rascals  he  had  ever  met.  Mr.  President,  for  the 
individual  studies  of  the  strictest  required 
.course,  I  have  the  profoundest  respect  and  affec- 
:tion,  but  taken  collectively  and  forced  indis- 
.criminately  upon  unwilling  pupils  I  cannot  re- 
:gard  them  so  highly.  With  regard  to  forcing  a 
istudent  to  continue  a  subject  which  he  finds  he 
does  not  care  to  continue,  even  though  he  chose 
it,  it  may  be  said  that  such  action  has  been 
.attended  with  no  very  gratifying  success  in  my 
rexperience.  The  number  of  such  cases,  how- 
.ever,  is  extremely  small.  The  skill  of  the 
teacher  who  presents  a  part  at  least  of  the 
.charms  of  a  subject,  before  he  shows  many  of 
its  difficulties  and  hints  of  worse  ones  to  follow, 
€annot  be  too  highly  commended.  Some  in- 
structors appear  to  take  an  almost  insane  delight 
in  perverting  the  ways  of  wisdom  from  those 
of  pleasantness  to  those  of  horror,  and  the 
paths  of  peace  to  those  of  an  internecine  guerilla 
warfare. 

It  must  be  remembered  in  connection  with 
another  part   of  the  last   question  that,  while 


198  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH  _^ 

most  pupils  naturally  wish  to  take  their  diplo- 
mas with  the  rest  of  their  classmates,  there  is. 
no  stigma  attached  to  those  who,  for  good 
reasons  of  their  own,  prefer  to  take  a  longer 
time  in  getting  their  diplomas.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  the  parents  of  growing  boys  and 
girls  think  that  the  college  requirements  are 
getting  altogether  too  strenuous,  an  opinion 
which  Professor  Ladd  of  Yale  shares  with  them 
most  heartily.  Such  parents  are  glad  to  avail 
themselves  of  that  most  reasonable  privilege  of 
extended  time,  say,  one  or  more  extra  years,  for 
obtaining  the  diplomas.  Another  privilege, 
which  is,  of  course,  to  be  carefully  guarded,  is 
that  of  special  pupils  who  wish  to  take  certain 
subjects  but  who  are  not  candidates  for  diplomas. 
How  do  you  arrange  a  programme,  when  the 
subjects  are  so  largely  elective  ?  Some  Head- 
masters wait  until  the  subjects  are  actually 
chosen  before  making  out  the  programme,  but 
I  have  always  found  it  wiser  to  make  out  a  pre- 
liminary programme  of  the  subjects  that  are 
practically  certain  to  be  chosen,  and  put  that 
programme  into  effect  at  the  earliest  possible 
time  in  the  autumn.     The  size  of  the  classea 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  199 

and  the  necessary  number  of  sections  may  be 
ascertained  by  careful  inquiry  at  the  end  of  the 
school  year.  Corrections,  extra  divisions  or 
consolidations  may  be  arranged  when  school 
actually  opens.  Thus  comparatively  little  time 
is  lost  for  want  of  a  working  programme.  Has 
it  been  found  in  actual  practice  that  the  popu- 
larity or  unpopularity  of  teachers  affects  the 
choice  of  subjects  ?  From  what  I  have  already 
said  on  this  topic  it  will  readily  appear  that, 
however  necessary  good  teachers  are  under  a 
compulsory  system,  they  are  still  more  necessary 
under  an  elective  system.  For  lack  of  skill,  ig- 
norance of  the  subject,  crabbed  disposition,  bad 
manners,  want  of  personal  magnetism,  and  lack 
of  interest  in  one's  work,  are  always  likely  to 
repel  human  beings  from  subjects  of  even  con- 
siderable value.  But  we  all  know  that  poor  or 
indifferent  teachers  have  no  reason  for  continu- 
ing in  the  profession  under  any  system  what- 
ever except  that  of  political  pull  or  misguided 
pity.  Better  a  thousand  times  to  pension  off  all 
teachers  who  have  outlived  their  usefulness  than 
to  keep  them  in  service  to  the  loss  of  their  own 
self-respect,  to  the  detriment  of  the  childen,  and 


200  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

to   the   ridicule    of    our    honorable    profession. 

Why  do  you  not  require  English  for  at  least  a 
part  of  the  course,  if  not  for  all  ? 

Now  that  question  is  always  asked  with  a 
jaunty  confidence  that  seems  to  imply  that  the 
advocates  of  electives  in  spite  of  their  cunning 
are  caught  at  last.  With  all  due  respect  to  the 
teachers  of  English  throughout  the  United 
States  and  with  full  appreciation  of  the  excel- 
lence of  their  work,  I  cannot  help  saying  that,  in 
my  opinion,  at  least,  an  untold  amount  of  their 
labor,  possibly  through  no  fault  of  their  own  is 
thrown  away  or  worse  than  wasted.  When  a 
young  man  of  average  intelligence  wrote  in  re- 
ply to  these  questions  on  College  English:  "  Who 
was  Silas  Marner  and  what  was  the  cause  of  his 
unpopularity  ?  ''  "  Silas  Marner  is  the  name  of 
a  poem  by  Coleridge.  The  cause  of  his  unpopu- 
larity was  that  he  killed  the  albatross  that  caused 
the  wind  to  blow  " — when  such  answers,  I  say, 
are  possible  after  several  years  of  High  School 
English,  a  portion  of  the  objections  to  making 
it  elective  may  be  met.  Frankly  now,  do  your 
pupils  fall  in  love  with  Burke  on  "  Conciliation  ", 
or  do  they  laboriously  ' '  get  it  up  "  for  college 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  201 

examinations,  and  thank  their  stars,  when  the 
test  and  the  book  are  gone  from  them  forever  ? 
And  isn't  it  a  singular  fact  that  most  of  our 
rhetorics  cull  all  of  their  atrocious  errors  in  Eng- 
lish, weeds  of  speech  from  the  rhetoricians' 
point  of  view,  from  the  best  writers  of  the  lan- 
guage ?  However  these  matters  may  be,  even 
English  was  made  elective  in  Boston. 

How  do  the  different  subjects  offered  as  elect- 
ives  vary  in  popularity  ? 

Now,  although  figures  are  extremely  tiresome, 
they  have  in  some  way  won  a  reputation  for  ver- 
acity not  always  deserved  by  them.  The  follow- 
ing figures,  however,  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
comparative  popularity  of  different  subjects, 
though  their  value  for  other  schools  with  differ- 
ent pupils  and  different  teachers  can  be  only 
problematical.  It  must  also  be  remembered 
that,  as  certain  subjects  are  not  open  to  students 
of  all  the  years,  while  other  subjects  are,  the 
figures  in  some  instances  do  not  furnish  any  basis 
of  comparison. 

Enghsh  290 

Latin  104 

French  110 


202  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH  ^ 

German  44 

Greek  19 

History  213 

Civics  23 

Algebra  96 

Physics  16 

Botany  74 

Stenography  120 

Bookkeeping  134 

Typewriting  99 
Commercial  Law     35 

Economics  16 

Drawing  119 

Chemistry  36 

Geometry  62 

Astronomy  14 

Physiology  40 
Manual  Training*    40 

As  the  total  number  of  pupils  was  about  300, 
the  relative  popularity  of  subjects  and  the  per 
cent  of  pupils  taking  them  may  readily  be  ob- 
tained, that  is  for  such  subjects  as  are  on  the 

*The  number  of  pupils  taking  Manual  Training  has  steadily 
increased  at  the  Brighton  High  School,  until  it  has  now  reached 
170. 


HIGH   SCHOOL   ELEOTIVES  20^ 

same  basis  or  are  given  the  same  number  of 
years. 

From  these  results  it  appears  that  among  the 
most  popular  subjects  are: — 

1.  Enghsh, 

2.  History, 

3.  Bookkeeping, 

4.  Drawing, 

5.  Stenography, 

6.  French, 

7.  Latin, 

8.  Typewriting, 

9.  Algebra, 
10.  Botany. 

Do  you  beheve  in  the  practice  of  allowing  pu- 
pils to  come  only  to  their  recitations,  and  to  do 
their  studying  mainly  at  home  ?  Although 
these  privileges  are  allowed  in  some  schools,  I 
have  grave  doubts  about  the  wisdom  of  extend- 
ing them  to  all.  I  am  old-fashioned  enough  to 
believe  in  the  educational  value  of  coming  to 
school  regularly  and  promptly  at  the  same  hour 
every  morning.  The  opening  exercises,  too,  if 
properly  conducted,  must  be  of  some  value,  al- 
though the  perfunctory  manner  some  teachers 


204  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

display  when  they  read  the  Scriptures,  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  whatever  faith  in  the  value 
of  the  exercise  others  had,  they  personally  had 
none.  It  seems  to  me  also  that  the  school  build- 
ing ought  to  be  the  best  place  for  the  average 
student  to  do  a  considerable  portion  of  his  study- 
ing. With  its  reasonable  rules  and  regulations, 
its  freedom  from  interruption,  its  reference 
books,  maps,  and  apparatus,  with  its  teachers 
ready  to  extend  proper  help,  the  school  would 
seem  to  offer  large  advantages  over  the  homes 
of  very  many  of  the  pupils.  In  connection 
with  this  subject  which  is  more  closely  con- 
nected with  that  of  electives  than  it  would  at 
first  sight  appear  to  be,  I  wish  to  emphasize  the 
importance  of  the  reference  library.  As  you 
all  know,  an  important  part  of  the  value  of  cer- 
tain subjects  depends  on  the  use  of  suitable  ref- 
erence books  and  collateral  reading.  With  the 
introduction  of  additional  subjects  this  necessity 
increases.  Very  fortunately  a  happy  solution  of 
this  problem  may  be  found  in  every  city  possess- 
ing a  good  public  library.  At  the  Brighton 
High  School,  our  reference  library  is  practically 
a  sub-station  of  the  great  Boston  public  library. 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  205 

Books  of  reference  and  for  supplementary  read- 
ing are  delivered  at  the  school  building  at  suit- 
able intervals  and  freely  used  under  proper  re- 
strictions by  pupils  and  teachers.  This  reference 
library  is  under  the  highly  efficient  supervision 
of  one  of  my  assistants  v^ho  appoints  and  trains 
pupil  librarians  and  manages  the  library  v^ith 
complete  success.  The  spirit  of  courtesy  and 
accommodation  manifested  by  the  authorities  of 
the  Boston  Public  Library  give  one  an  insight 
into  the  causes  that  have  made  that  famous 
library  so  admirably  useful. 

To  continue  the  questions:  If  you  believe  so 
thoroughly  in  electives,  why  do  you  have  any 
required  work  whatever  ?  In  other  words  un- 
der a  system  of  educational  free  trade,  why  in- 
sist on  certain  protected  industries  ?  Are  not 
the  educational  industries  beyond  their  softly 
cradled  infancy  to  such  an  extent,  that  they  can 
now  stand  alone  on  their  own  feet  and  their  own 
merits  ?  In  reply  to  this  perfectly  natural 
question  I  must  quote  from  our  Boston  course 
of  study  and  from  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the 
State  of  Massachusetts : 


206  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

PHYSICAL     TRAINING 

Physical  training  is  regularly  given  at  school 
by  means  of  gymnastics  and  military  drill;  and 
no  class  or  pupil,  during  the  first  three  years  of 
the  course,  is  allowed,  without  good  reason,  to 
omit  these  physical  exercises.  Moreover,  teach- 
ers will  guard  the  health  of  their  pupils,  or  bet- 
ter, will  instruct  them  how  to  observe  the  laws 
of  life  and  health.  Sound  advice  with  regard 
to  diet,  ventilation,  exercise,  rest,  dress,  and 
regular  hours  will  be  given;  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  following  law  of  this  state  will  be 
observed:  "  Physiology  and  Hygiene,  which,  in 
both  divisions  of  the  subject,  shall  include  special 
instruction  as  to  the  effects  of  alcoholic  drinks, 
stimulants,  and  narcotics  on  the  human  system, 
shall  be  taught  as  a  regular  branch  of  study  to 
all  pupils  in  all  schools  supported  wholly  or  in 
part  by  public  money,  except  special  schools 
maintained  solely  for  instruction  in  particular 
branches." 

Probably  many  of  you  have  observed  that  it 
often  happens  that  pupils,  who  need  physical 
training  most,  are  least  inclined  to  take  a  proper 
amount  of  it.     Some  educational  problems  are 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  207 

like  certain  algebraic  problems  that  admit  of 
several  answers.  Only  sometimes  the  problem 
has  to  be  reconstructed  to  make  the  answer  hold 
good.  Other  educational  problems  admit,  as  a 
rule,  but  one  answer.  One  of  these  problems  is 
that  of  physical  exercise.  Unless  there  is  good 
evidence  that  a  pupil  in  consequence  of  some 
pecuharity  or  weakness  will  be  injured  by  physi- 
cal exercise,  it  appears  to  be  generally  admitted 
that  all  pupils  should  take  some  form  of  it.  But 
when  you  get  something  generally  acknowl- 
edged in  Boston,  you  must  look  out  for  a  storm 
centre.  Even  in  the  case  under  consideration, 
although  the  value  of  physical  exercise  is  very 
generally  acknowledged,  materials  for  discussion 
still  remain  in  the  form,  the  extent,  and  the 
methods  of  the  exercise.  There  is  a  well-rooted 
and  growing  belief  that  physical  exercise  that  is 
devoid  of  real  interest  to  the  participant  can 
have  very  slight  value.  Consequently,  there  is 
an  increasing  tendency  towards  introducing 
really  interesting  games. 

With  regard  to  the  instruction  in  hygiene, 
you  will  observe  that  the  letter  of  the  law  leaves 
us  no  option  in  the  matter,  although  I  strongly 


208  EDUCATIONAL   BROTH 

suspect  that  local  option  is  very  commonly 
adopted  in  this  matter  by  the  high  schools  of 
Massachusetts.  The  required  work  in  music,  is 
not  rigidly  compulsory,  and  other  work  involv- 
ing an  equal  amount  of  time  may  be  substituted 
for  it. 

Do  pupils  by  the  elective  system  get  so  good 
an  "  all-round  "  secondary  education  as  they 
do  under  the  compulsory  plan  ?  That  question 
has  an  extremely  plausible  sound,  and  so  pre- 
possessing an  appearance,  that  it  looks  danger- 
ous, but  what  does  it  really  imply  ?  It  implies 
that  some  persons  used  to  know  or  still  know 
at  the  present  time  which  studies  are  necessary 
to  secure  for  most  students  an  "  all-round  " 
education.  Now  if  this  impression  be  true,  it  is 
a  matter  of  the  highest  educational  importance 
to  find  out  who  those  persons  are  or  were; 
whether  they  lived  in  former  ages  or  are  living 
now,  and,  above  all,  which  the  necessary  sub- 
jects are.  The  earnest  seeker  after  truth  finds 
on  careful  investigation  that  those  who  are  gen- 
erally acknowledged  to  be  the  educational  ex- 
perts of  the  world  at  different  stages  of  its  prog- 
ress have  utterly  failed  to  manifest  that  harmony 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  209 

of  opinions  on  which  a  rigidly  compulsory  course 
of  study  would  naturally  be  based.  For  many 
years  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics,  were  su- 
preme. For  many  years,  too,  theology  was  given 
a  prominent  place.  It  was  a  long  time  before 
science,  modern  languages,  and  art,  could  get 
their  pressing  claims  acknowledged.  Business 
studies,  sociology,  physical  exercise,  domestic 
science,  and  other  subjects,  have  been  still  longer 
in  obtaining  proper  recognition.  Perhaps  all 
the  experts  of  bygone  days  and  of  the  present 
are  both  right  and  wrong.  Perhaps  each  age 
needs  its  own  curriculum,  and  possibly  that  of 
the  future  will  be  very  different  from  that  of  the 
past  and  of  the  present.  So  be  it.  I  for  one 
desire  to  welcome  every  study  that  can  advance 
the  wisdom  and  the  highest  interests  of  any 
considerable  number  of  pupils.  Put  each  sub- 
ject on  its  own  merits.  Even  though  in  the 
opinion  of  some,  certain  subjects  even  as  Latin 
and  Greek  in  the  opinion  of  that  eminent  experi- 
menter. Doctor  G.  Stanley  Hall,  are  as  worthless 
as  the  human  race  after  the  fall  of  Adam.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  human  race, 
though    totally  depraved,   according  to  the  old 


210  EDUCATIONAL    BROTH 

theology,  was  still  deemed  worthy  of  redemp- 
tion. Just  so  with  these  numerous  subjects  of 
the  elective  plan,  no  matter  what  this  specialist 
or  that  intellectual  bigot  may  say  against  this, 
that  or  the  other  subject,  the  logic  of  events,  the 
needs  of  the  age,  the  efficiency  of  the  teacher, 
will  tend  to  redeem  studies  that  to  some  have 
seemed  unnecessary,  unfruitful,  or  even  injuri- 
ous. ' '  What  is  the  use, ' '  said  a  good  doctor 
of  divinity  to  me  not  long  ago,  ''  of  teaching 
typewriting  in  the  High  School,  when  any  intel- 
ligent person  can  learn  all  there  is  to  the  art  in 
thirty-five  minutes  .^  " 

"  What  is  the  use,"  I  might  have  replied  "  of 
teaching  logic  in  colleges  and  divinity  schools,  if 
doctors  of  divinity  are  going  to  '  beg  the  ques- 
tion '  at  that  rate  ?  "  I  have  in  mind  a  highly 
accomplished  teacher,  known  by  reputation,  at 
least,  far  and  wide,  who  appears  to  be  utterly 
and  sublimely  unconscious  of  all  subjects  ex- 
cept her  own  and  those  kindred  to  them.  If  the 
heavens  fall,  justice  and  more  than  justice  must 
be  done  her  lessons,  while  the  unrecognized 
branches  must  get  studied  as  they  may,  or  may 
even  wither.     Let  me  utter  a  solemn  warning 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ELECTIVES  211 

against  such  intellectual  prejudice  as  that.  Our 
ancestors  came  to  this  country  to  secure  liberty 
of  conscience.  It  is  the  duty  and  the  privilege 
of  us,  their  descendants,  to  maintain  and  increase 
our  heritage  of  intellectual  liberty. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen,  I  have 
addressed  these  remarks  to  your  professional 
skill,  your  ability,  and  your  sense  of  justice.  For 
five  pleasant  years  New  Jersey  was  my  home, 
and  perhaps  this  fact  together  with  the  memories 
of  the  great  kindness  of  my  New  Jersey  friends, 
had  something  to  do  with  my  coming  here  to- 
day. I  wish  in  closing  to  thank  you  for  your 
very  courteous  attention,  and  to  extend  to  you 
my  best  wishes  for  continued  success  in  your 
great  work.  ^^^^TTTa'^  ^  .. 

or  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

^^ 


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